1997 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 211-216
We used fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) to diagnose breast masses and discharge cytology for diagnosing non-palpable breast lesions with nipple discharge. Most palpable breast cancers were confirmed by a triple assessment involving physical examination, breast imaging and FNAC. Our results for sensitivity and specificity of FNAC in the diagnosis of breast mass were 97.6% and 98.2%, respectively, during the past 3 years, and FNAC was more reliable than other conventional diagnostic methods. In contrast, the sensitivity and specificity of discharge cytology for non-palpable breast lesion with nipple discharge were 62.5% and 64.7%, respectively. Since the diagnostic value of discharge cytology is low, duct-lobular segmentectomy (DLS) has been carried out for patients with nipple discharge to obtain a final diagnosis, and recently discharge cytology has been used mainly to select patients who require DLS. There is a great difference between the accuracy of FNAC and that of discharge cytology, and it is important to recognize this fact when diagnosing breast lesions.
