Cytopathology in focus—Use of cytologic material for ancillary studies in respiratory pathology: Begin with the end in mind
August 2024—Case. A 58-year-old female patient undergoes robotic endobronchial ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration for a peripherally located right upper lobe stellate-shaped lung lesion with ground-glass opacification. Rapid onsite evaluation (ROSE) assessments were adequate on four Diff-Quik (DQ) smears that were prepared for evaluation. One slide was cover-slipped for diagnostic purposes and the remaining slides were retained, uncovered. The cytopathologist requested additional material for further ancillary studies. The needle was rinsed in CytoLyt solution used to prepare a cell block from the cell pellet, and the residual supernatant was stored (at -80°C) for possible future molecular studies. The cell block cellularity was adequate, and the malignant cell population represented 50 percent of the sampled cells.