Clinical Significance of Fine Needle Aspiration in Managing Patients with Breast Lesions

Abstract

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been and still is challenged about its role in the management of breast lesions. Guidelines today mandate that breast lesions should be managed with a triple assessment system consisting of clinical, radiological, and pathological evaluation. Aim: This article will try and clarify whether FNAC stands as a tool in this assessment. Materials and methods: PubMed was searched for articles concerning prospective, retrospective and review studies about clinical applications of FNAC. Results: Specialists agree and evidence occurs that FNAC could be the examination of first choice in matters of pathological evaluation. Conclusions: It is an easily performed, patient-friendly and cheap examination. It can successfully and quite quickly filter out benign breast conditions without any further cost or stress to the patient. In cases with inconclusive results or insufficient samples it should be followed by needle core biopsy (NCB). As a method, it has its limitations. It cannot directly provide information about tissue architecture, and identify certain breast conditions. Modern developments in liquid based cytology (LBC) upgrade its role in neoadjuvant chemotherapy too. In order to have satisfactory results, high levels of experience are required.

Breast Cancer Awareness and Detection of Asymptomatic Cases Using Breast Palpation and Fine-needle Aspiration in Bafoussam, Cameroon

“…Besides, only 12% of the study participants were informed about breast cancer and its signs and risks by their schools, which is surprising for a study population where 26.7% are students, suggesting that schools are not informing their students enough about breast cancer. Nonetheless, in our study 49% of participants were aware that breast cancer can be prevented by early detection with nodules as a major sign, against 95% in studies performed a decade ago in compared Cameroonian cities [17][18][19][20][21][22][23], which reflects the message of the sporadic national breast cancer awareness campaigns of the last decade and suggests that they had a positive impact. Moreover, a significant correlation was found between professional occupation, level of education, and awareness about risk factors and signs of breast cancer, with nodules in the breast as the best-known sign (50%), corroborating various reports in other African countries [20][21][22], and indicating that the message of the awareness campaigns was not easily accessible to uneducated public.…”

“…Thus, the poor awareness about breast cancer screening methods and signs may be due to poor communication with the public. Notably, as observed in Morocco, where sensitization of women to BSE increased the early diagnosis of breast cancer from 56.4% in 2004 to 68.5% in 2009 [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], increasing breast cancer awareness level, in particular with information on screening methods and on the importance of early detection could further improve the health seeking behavior of women and cancer early detection rates in Cameroon, and beyond. Weak practice of BSE was reported in various countries in Africa, including for instance, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia, and Morocco, with practice rate ranging between 11.6% and 34.9% [4-9-11-14-15-21-24].…”

“…We assessed also the feasibility of an early detection of breast cancer by breast palpation followed by fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology in cases where nodules were detected. FNA is a relatively inexpensive technique for breast cancer detection in professional clinical settings, which also presents with the advantages of being less invasive, having wide applicability for palpable tumors, and allowing sampling of different areas of the lesion, increasing the reliability of breast cancer diagnosis [18][19].…”

Breast cancer awareness and screening practice amongst health personnel and general population of the littoral region of Cameroon

“…Breast palpation coupled with fine needle aspiration (FNA), a cost-effective cytopathological analytic technique efficient in this context [ 17 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], allowed reliable diagnosis and classification of breast cancer in our study. It revealed nodules in 37 (6.0%) of participants, confirming the need to raise awareness of breast cancer screening campaigns in Cameroon.…”

Artificial intelligence assisted diagnoses of fine-needle aspiration of breast diseases: a single-center experience

“…It is patient-friendly and cost-effective. Sample preparation and processing is less time-consuming and possibly performed directly at the site of cell collection [13,14]. Liquid-based cytology (LBC) would be optimal but requires more expertise and technical support.…”