Conclusion
A plethora of old and new methods are available for routinely preparing cell blocks in cytology practice. However, to date no single method has been widely adopted by all cytology laboratories. Several steps can be undertaken to enhance the cellularity of cell blocks, some which occur at the point-of-care, including better operator skill, enhanced specimen adequacy, proper triage, and dedicated passes for cell block [19], and others which can be implemented in cytology and histology laboratories. Despite ongoing development of new and improved cell block techniques, the production and optimal utilization of cell blocks remains a work in progress that requires standardization. This is important because without assured adequate cellularity in cell blocks, the tendency will be to continually move towards competing specimens such as core-needle biopsies or hybrid cytology-histology samples.
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