This audit demonstrated widespread diagnostic difficulties associated with head and neck FNAC in a large patient sample. It is likely that these problems will be mirrored in other cancer networks. In order for one-stop head and neck clinics to succeed, the non-diagnostic rate of FNAC in particular must be minimised. There are strategies to enable this, depending on local resources, including increased access to cytologists or cytology technicians, diagnostic ultrasound, image guidance for FNAC and the use of ultrasound-guided core biopsy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.