COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SQUASH CYTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY IN GLIOBLASTOMA AND ITS VARIANTS

Abstract

Introduction Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and deadly of all brain tumors. It accounts for 12-15% of all intracranial neoplasm and 50-60% (1) of all astrocytic tumours Even though Glioblastoma is a quite rare tumor with a global incidence rate of less than 10 per 100,000 it signicantly (2) impacts the life of the affected patients due to its poor prognosis with a median survival time of only 14-15 months from the time of diagnosis . Materials And MethodsA total of 21 cases of Glioblastomas were studied over a period of 5yrs from 2017 to 2022. Intraoperative squash smears were prepared, stained with toluidine blue, “Hematoxylin and Eosin” and examined. The residual tissue samples were processed for parafn section and stained by Hematoxylin and Eosin and IHC was done wherever necessary. Histopathological examination was carried out for conrmative diagnosis and squash smear cytology diagnoses were correlated with nal histopathological ndings. Out of 21 cases, 12 Results were Glioblastoma, 7 were Gliosarcoma, one each of Epithelioid Glioblastoma and Gemistocytic Glioblastoma. Male to Female Ratio is 2.5:1. Most common clinical presentations were Headache, giddiness, vomiting and weakness/paresis in lower limbs. Intraoperative Squash smear cytology could diagnose high grade gliomas with 100 % accuracy which was concordant with histopathological diagnosis. Squash Conclusion smear cytology ndings, if interpreted with clinical picture and radio-imaging ndings, will help to reach an accurate and rapid diagnosis of intracranial tumor, but histopathology remains gold standard for conrmation of diagnosis and differentiating the variants.