Efficacy of Manual Liquid Based Cytology over Conventional Cytology in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Context/Background: Oral cytology has come long way from its primitive Papanicolau days. Liquid Based cytology has shown significant advantages over conventional exfoliative cytology. However, LBC requires expensive automated devices and materials which might not be affordable for many cytopathological laboratories in countries with limited resources. Manual liquid Based Cytology (MLBC) is a technique that enables cells to be suspended in a monolayer and thus improves detection of lesions and improvement of adequacy. Aim: To study and evaluate the diagnostic efficiency and reliability of MLBC in comparison with conventional PAP smear (CPS) of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: Two smear were prepared from 50 patients, clinically diagnosed with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Each smear was subjected to MLBC and CPS methods. The slides were evaluated by two pathologists for the staining characterstics of nucleus and cytoplasm. The diagnostic efficiency of each smear was evaluated by comparing the cytological diagnosis of each method with histopathological diagnosis. Results: Increased detection rate with MLBC was 29.41%. Identifying cellular atypia by MLBC was more sensitive (44%) compared to CPS (34%) with similar specificity (100%). The percentage agreement by the two methods was 77.28%. Conclusion: MLBC is an easy, cost effective technique comparable to CPS; however, it warrants further study in its potential application in screening of oral precancer and cancer.