Cells can show changes to their nucleus due to malignancy or as a reaction to conditions around them such as inflammation, infection and wound healing. The changes seen in malignancy can overlap with reactive changes so it is important to look for a combination of features that can suggest malignancy rather than relying on a single characteristic. It can be useful to compare cells which have suspicious features to other cells of the same type in the specimen which you are sure are benign.

In general nuclear, features that suggest a cell is malignant are: