Cytopathology

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Cytopathology is the medical specialty that can rapidly identify precancerous conditions as well as cancer, in an precises and cost-effective manner.

Cytopathological examination is the simplest, fastest and safest method for cancer prevention and diagnosis worldwide, due to its high diagnostic accuracy when performed by experienced and specialised cytologists.

The Cytopathology Laboratory of Nicosia General Hospital is the only Public Hospital Cytopathology Laboratory in Cyprus and provides its services to all Public Hospitals in Cyprus as well as the Bank of Cyprus Oncology centre.

The Cytopathology laboratory comprises two Departments:

A) Gynaecological: This includes the Vaginal, Extracervical and Intracervical smear test (Pap Test). The Pap test is routinely used for the prevention and diagnosis of inflammatory, precancerous and of course cancerous cervical lesions.

B) Non-Gynaecological

• Cytological examination of breast secretions
• Cytological examination of sputum, bronchial secretions, brushing of bronchi
• Cytological examination of urine
• Cytological examination of cavity fluids such as Ascetic, Pleural and Pericardial
• Fine needle aspirations (FNA) in internal organs: Lung, Liver, Pancreas, Kidneys, Gallbladder and soft tissues
• FNA in superficial organs such as: breast, thyroid gland, lymph nodes, salivary glands
• Tzanck smear test on skin alterations.
• All non-gynaecological cytopathological tests aim to the identification of precancerous / cancerous lesions as well as inflammation / cysts or benign tumours.

The fine needle aspiration (FNA) method, the downstream lab processing of the specimens but also the three routinely used staining methods (Papanikolaou, May Grunwald’s Giemsa and Hemacolor), allow us to diagnose with high sensitivity inflammatory or neoplastic lesions in tissues or organs. The method is minimally invasive, simple, fast, low-cost and highly reliable. The specimen is normally collected at the outpatient clinic or at the patient’s ward. The processing is completed within 24-48 hours.

In 2018, we introduced regular internal laboratory quality controls, something that led to significant improvements of the quality, accuracy and reliability of our services.

The Laboratory is also evaluated by an external quality control program, namely Labquality Finland, for further improvement of the quality of our services. The laboratory, within the scope of prevention and diagnosis of cervical cancer, is committed to become the Pap test reference lab for the cervical cancer screening programme of the Ministry of Health.