Atypia is a medical term used to describe cells that no longer have a normal appearance. For instance, someone if a female has some breast tissue examined via a biopsy and the cells appear somewhat abnormal, she may be told that her cells are atypia. Allow me to explain this in more detail below.
Atypia can indicate that cells may continue to develop to the precancerous stage, but in fact, this is often not the case. In many instances, a second biopsy will be performed, and will show absolutely normal cells.
Having said that, there are a number of things atypia can refer to, such as the following:
- Marked nuclear atypia - This means that the cells have a centre that doesn't look quite right.
- Atypical lobular hyperplasia - This result indicates that there are more cells than normal within the lobules of the breast.
- Focal atypia - This means that one a small amount of the investigated sample showed signs of atypia.
Ultimately, atypia simply means that a cell does not appear normal. This can indicate that the patient has "pre-pre-cancer", but is not necessarily the case. In fact, the risk of developing cancer once an atypia diagnosis has been made is increased by approximately 1%.
