The Milan System for Reporting Salivary Gland Cytopathology: An outcome of retrospective application to three years’ cytology data of a tertiary care hospital

OBJECTIVES: Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of the salivary gland lesions has diverse and sometimes overlapping features that pose a diagnostic challenge for the cytopathologists. The Milan System for Reporting Salivary Gland Cytopathology (MSRSGC) has been introduced to bring uniformity in the reporting of salivary gland FNAC and improve the clinic-pathologic communication resulting in better patient management. The aim of the present study was to assess the application of the MSRSGC on FNAC specimens of salivary gland lesions at a tertiary care hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All salivary gland aspiration cytology cases along with histopathology follow-up of salivary gland lesions, wherever available, over a period of 36 months were analyzed and re-categorized according to MSRSGC into six categories and the risk of malignancy (ROM) was computed. RESULTS: Of the 123 patients, 23 (18.69%) were classified as non-diagnostic, 39 cases (31.7%) as non-neoplastic, one (0.81%) as atypia of undetermined significance (AUS), benign neoplasm in 49 (39.8%) cases, uncertain malignant potential in two cases (1.63%), suspicious of malignancy in two cases, and malignant in seven cases (5.69%). Out of 123 cases, histopathological correlation was available in 34 cases, for which the ROM was calculated. The ROM was 0% for non-neoplastic, 11.1% for benign neoplasm, and 100% each for salivary neoplasm of uncertain neoplastic potential, and 100% for malignant categories. CONCLUSION: In the present study, the distribution of cases according to MSRSGC was comparable with the previous studies. The proportion of cases classified as AUS was within the goal set by MSRSGC at less than 10%. A risk-based stratification of salivary gland lesions in the form of MSRSGC is essential in the present era to guide and alert the clinician about the subsequent management plan and convey the ROM.