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Advancements in Cytopathology: Challenges and Changes
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Advancements in Cytopathology: Challenges and Changes

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 716

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Panagiota Mikou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Cytopathology Laboratory, “Laiko” General Hospital of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Interests: cytopathology; cancer diagnosis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on recent advancements in cytopathology. Cytopathology is an important tool for cancer diagnosis. Recent research highlights the implementation of numerous ancillary techniques on cytology material. This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest breakthroughs in this field, concentrating on the extensive use of cytology that holds significant potential for improving early cancer detection, treatment, and patient outcomes. 

The scope of this Special Issue encompasses various aspects of cytology, including exfoliative and FNA cytology and making optimal use of limited material to obtain as much diagnostic information as possible. It includes morphological assessment, challenging cases in gray areas, ancillary techniques, new techniques, and changes in old ones. Importantly, this Special Issue will delve into cutting-edge technologies applied to cytology material. This would save patients from unnecessary surgery and would affect favorably early cancer diagnosis.

Moreover, this Special Issue will explore the application of molecular biomarkers on cytology material and its implementation in personalized medicine and precision oncology. Discussions on the challenges associated with biomarkers and their clinical applications will be included, emphasizing the need for robust validation studies. 

Overall, this Special Issue serves as a platform for researchers and clinicians to access the latest advancements in cytopathology, driving the development of more effective and tailored approaches for cancer management.

Dr. Panagiota Mikou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cytopathology
  • cancer diagnosis
  • cytology
  • early cancer detection
  • exfoliative cytology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

23 pages, 410 KB  
Review
Performance of Urine Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization for Diagnosis of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma: A Comprehensive Review
by Dimitra Grapsa, Marina Sassi and Panagiota Mikou
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(8), 3406; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27083406 - 10 Apr 2026
Viewed by 239
Abstract
Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a relatively rare malignancy, far less frequent than its counterpart in the bladder, but with a more aggressive course, worse prognosis and unique diagnostic challenges. Despite the histological and molecular similarities between upper and lower tract urothelial [...] Read more.
Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a relatively rare malignancy, far less frequent than its counterpart in the bladder, but with a more aggressive course, worse prognosis and unique diagnostic challenges. Despite the histological and molecular similarities between upper and lower tract urothelial tumours, UTUC has many key distinct traits, both clinical and genomic, and must be viewed as a separate entity from bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC). Ureteroscopy with biopsy is the only means to obtain tissue for histo-logical confirmation of diagnosis and more accurate tumour grading, but is not always feasible or preferable because it carries the risk of potentially severe complications. Aside from the widely available but poorly sensitive urine cytology, a large variety of urine-based diagnostics are increasingly investigated as non-invasive alternatives to ureteroscopy. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is the most widely used molecular assay for the diagnosis and monitoring of UTUC, but has failed, as of yet, to display a comparable diagnostic accuracy to the existing gold standards of computed tomography urography (CTU) and ureteroscopy. We herein aimed to comprehensively review all published data on the performance of FISH for the detection of UTUC, in comparison to urine cytology and other assays, while further commenting on the existing challenges and future perspectives in the field of urine-based diagnostics. Across all studies (n = 29) which were included in this review, the sensitivity and specificity of FISH ranged from 36.8% to 100.0% (mean: 75.5%; median: 78.9%) and 34.4% to 100.0% (mean: 84.9%; median: 89.9%), respectively, in the overall patient population, while in the low- versus high-grade subgroups, the sensitivity of FISH ranged from 30.0% to 90.0% (mean: 55.6%; median: 60%) versus 50.0% to 100.0% (mean: 77.9%; median: 78.8%). Furthermore, FISH showed superi-or sensitivity and similar or lower specificity in comparison to cytology, in the over-whelming majority of studies, while Xpert®BC Detection showed the highest sensitivity values among all evaluated assays, reaching 100% even in the low-grade subgroup, albeit at the cost of a significantly reduced specificity. Despite the adequate overall sensitivity and specificity of FISH, its suboptimal performance in the detection of low-grade UTUC seems to preclude its use as a stand-alone screening test. Full article
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