Abstract
Objective : Histology and cytology are both useful in diagnosing breast lesions detected in mammographic screening, but the advent of vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB) has led to fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNA) being skipped at many institutions. Based on ultrasound-guided FNA and needle biopsy, we evaluated the FNA role in pathological diagnosis of breast lesions.
Study Design : Cases were 2358 ultrasonographic (US) studies conducted in 2007 whose diagnostic US and FNA accuracy was calculated based on pathological diagnosis. FNA, core-needle biopsy (CNB), and VBA were considered with special reference to ultrasound features of lesions.
Results : In FNA categorization, category C2 (n=57) contained no carcinoma while C5 (n=56) contained only carcinoma. No invasive carcinoma less than 1 cm in diameter was diagnosed as C1, suggesting that small size did not influence results. Scirrhous and invasive lobular carcinoma accounted for 87.5% of carcinoma graded C1. The majority, 58.8%, of DCIS was categorized as indeterminate, C3 or C4, despite adequate sampling.
Conclusions : FNA remains useful in differentially diagnosing breast lesions, and the biopsy modality selected should be based upon the histological features of breast lesions indicated in US findings.
