The cytological presentation seems to be similar at first sight. There are three main differences. Firstly, in the case the papillary carcinoma the papillary structures contain a fibrovascular core which is lacking in the clusters of colon cancer. Secondly, colon cancer presents the characteristic palisading arrangement of tumor cells. And thirdly, the cells of colon carcinoma are cylindrical but in papillary carcinoma they are round.