Advantage of Core Needle Biopsy Over Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in Palpable Breast Lumps

Abstract

OBJECTIVETo study the advantage of Core Needle Biopsy (CNB) over Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in palpable breast lumps by comparing the diagnostic accuracy in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values considering the histopathological diagnosis of incised or excised specimen as the gold standard. METHODSA prospective study of 100 female patients with palpable breast lump was conducted in the Department of Pathology of a tertiary care teaching hospital of Northern part of India. All the patients were randomly selected, irrespective of their age, religion, marital status, occupation or social status for FNAC following a thorough clinical check-up. During the study period, 54 patients were selected for core needle biopsy on the basis of insufficient FNAC material for making definitive diagnosis and for sub-typing the tumours. All core biopsy samples were subjected for histopathological examination. The diagnostic findings were compared with the histopathological findings of the lumpectomy or mastectomy specimen and with those of FNAC findings for each and every patient. RESULTSThe sensitivity of FNAC and CNB was 96.29% and the specificity for malignant lesions was 100%. The positive predictive value was 100% and the negative predictive value was 95.12%. CONCLUSIONThere is no significant difference in the diagnostic accuracy between core needle biopsy and FNAC. KEYWORDSCore Needle Biopsy, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Palpable Breast Lump. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE:Singh GR, Rai MK, Singh R, et al. Advantage of core needle biopsy over fine needle aspiration cytology in palpable breast lumps.