Use of Fine-Needle Aspiration in the Evaluation of Breast Lumps

Abstract

Background. A study was designed to see the role of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in palpable breast lumps. Materials and Methods. Four hundred and twenty five (425) patients came to the Department of Pathology King Edward Medical University, Lahore in four years for FNAC of their palpable breast masses from June 2006 to June 2010. FNAC diagnosis was compared with histological diagnosis to see the accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology for neoplastic lesions. Results. There were 271/425 benign, 120/425 malignant, and 32/425 suspicious smears. Inadequate samples were repeated twice or thrice, and the degree of success was improved with consecutive repeating approaches. The frequency of inadequacy declined from 86 to 18, and 2 for first, second and third attempts, respectively. The number of repeats increased the diagnostic accuracy of aspirates which is statistically significant (P = .000). Invasive ductal carcinoma was the most commonly reported lesion with maximum incidence in the 4th, 5th, and 6th decades followed by invasive lobular carcinoma and other malignant lesions. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, negative predictive value, and the positive predictive value of FNAC was 98%, 100%, 98%, 100%, and 97%, respectively. Conclusion. FNAC serves as a rapid, economical, and reliable tool for the diagnosis of palpable breast lesions because the cytopathological examination of these lesions before operation or treatment serves as an important diagnostic modality.

Pathological Profile of Patients with Breast Diseases in Shiraz

“…It should be noted that fibrocystic changes are lesions without hyperplasia which do not normally increase the risk of malignancies (Schnitt, 2003). In this study, 39% of the diagnoses were benign inflammation and mastitis was the most prevalent type of inflammation, which is consistent with the findings of other studies (Bukhari et al, 2011). Granulomatous mastitis can result from infectious factors such as mycobacterium tuberculosis, non-infectious factors such as sarcoidoses, or external factors such as paraffin and silicon.…”

Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Palpable Breast Lump: A Study of 1778 Cases

“…Again it may be due to smaller number of cases (55) Regarding inflammatory lesions of the breast, this study found total 21.15% cases. This result are supported by the findings from Pakistan by Bukhari et al [8] 20%, from Nepal by Kumar [9] 22.6%, though findings of Nemaqani and Yaqoob [13] showed little higher (26.5%) from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The major difference of this study was that we found 6.52% of granulomatous mastitis cases which was reported very low in their studies; 2.3% by Bukhari et al [8] and none by Kumar [9].…”

“…Ahmed et al [7] from Sudan reported 15-85 years of age range with a mean of 37 years. Bukhari et al [8] showed a range of 16-70 years in Pakistan, Kumar [9] reported 6-72 years and Tiwari [10] 17-56 years in Nepal with a mean age of 34 and 32 years respectively and 18-92 years with a mean age of 59.3 years were reported by Dennison et al [11] in United Kingdom (UK). The higher age range of this study from Nepal and Pakistan may be explained by the increased life expectancy rates from those countries.…”

Fnac Accuracy in Diagnosis of Breast Lesions

“…FNAC has superseded the use of frozen section examination in the diagnosis and management of patients with breast cancer. 3,4 The role of cytology in the diagnosis of breast lesions is complimentary with the clinical opinion of examining surgeon and the mammographic appearances. Histological examination is indispensable to the establishment of exclusion of the diagnosis of malignant disease.…”