GROSS CHARACTERIZATION OF NEOPLASTIC LYMPHADENOPATHY.

Abstract

Background: Neoplastic lesions are one ofthe causes oflymphadenopathy, which harbors a wide spectrum of diseases.It is essential to conduct a lymph node biopsy and histopathological examination of the enlarged nodes. Histological processing beginswithnoticingdownthegrossfeatures.Itis possible torecognize thediseaseprocess bygrosslyexamininglymphnodes. Objectives: The objective of thisstudy isto characterize the neoplastic lymph node grossly on the premise of itssize,shape, cutsection appearance andpatternofinvolvementwhetherpresentingassingle,multipleormatted. Methods: The study used cross-sectional, quantitative methods, conducted in a hospital over a one-year period from 30thApril 2018 to 29thApril 2019 at Department of Pathology, TUTH. Ourstudy included participants with neoplastic lymph nodes who underwent excisional and lymph node biopsynodedissection, alongwithotherradicalprocedures.Wenotedthegrossfeatures of aneoplastic lymphnode. Results: The mean diameter of the largest lymph node with a neoplastic lesion was 2.02± 0.86 cm. The majority of neoplastic lymph nodes were round.Matted lesionswere found in seven cases, discretemultiple lymph nodesinvolved in 16 cases, and single lymph nodewasinvolved in 16 cases. Metastasisinvolving lymph nodes was most common in invasive carcinoma of the breast, NST.Among primary tumors of lymph nodes, most were Hodgkinlymphomas.Typically,lymphnodeswere irregular andshowedhomogenous brown and irregular grey white areas on cut sections. Conclusion: Neoplastic lymph nodes are characterized by different gross characteristics depending on theirshape, cutsection, and location. Pattern oflymph nodesinvolved is associatedwith origin of cancer(metastatic or primary tumor oflymph node).For amore complete understanding of gross features of lymph nodes, a rigorous study is recommended to identify whether the gross appearance of lymph nodes correlates with neoplastic pathologyandtodosimilarstudieswithlargersample sizes.