Filling the gap between histology and cytology: description of an innovative technology (Cytomatrix) to increase the diagnostic effectiveness of fine needle aspirates data.

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is a marginally invasive, fast and cost-effective technique to diagnose malignancy as well as other pathologies in different anatomical sites. In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the demands on sensitivity and specificity of cytodiagnosis as well as in the requirement to produce further biological data to better determine treatment and prognosis.1 Unfortunately, cytology specimens often are not suitable for ancillary studies both for the quality and the amount of the material. Furthermore, carrying out more aspirations may not be doable. Another point to be underlined is the fact that many times pathologists adapt ancillary techniques learnt in histology to cytology specimens without bearing in mind main differences in the specimen preparation that could alter the final interpretation of the data and ultimately the diagnosis for patient care.2 This is particularly true in the case of immunohistochemistry, where the great majority of the commercially available antibodies have been selected for their reliability when used in tissues fixed in formalin and paraffin-embedded.3 4 In this article, we propose a novel approach for the immunohistochemical characterisation of tumour fine needle aspirates by taking advantage of Cytomatrix, a recently defined synthetic matrix that counts among its various characteristics the property to capture and store inside its three-dimensional structure, the biological material (micro-macro cells …