Study on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology and Histopathology in the Diagnosis of Breast Lump: A Comparative Approach

Aims and Objectives: 1.To compare the results of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and histopathological study of biopsy in detecting breast cancer in suspicious breast lumps in outpatient setting; 2. To study the accuracy of FNAC in diagnosing various breast lumps; 3. To know whether the cancer patients can be managed based on FNAC diagnosis alone without histological study.

Methodology: It was a hospital based retrospective study carried out from the data retrieved from the Dept. of Pathology of Mysore Medical College, Mysore in a period from August 2016 – September 2016.

Period of Study: 2 months, Sample Size: 50 patients.

Results: In the present study, FNAC had sensitivity of 50%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 100%, and negative predictive value of 88.37%. In this case FNAC is highly specific with maximum positive predictive value.

Conclusion: Benign neoplasms of the breast are more common than malignant one. The present study shows FNAC correlation with histopathology with high specificity and maximum positive predictive value. The sensitivity of FNAC is less compared to biopsy. However, FNAC can be used as an indicative diagnosis (one stop) for breast cancer examination in outpatient setting. Accuracy of FNAC enables to proceed with surgery or not. It bridges the gap between clinical evaluation and final surgical pathological diagnosis in majority of cases. It enables the clinician to obtain a diagnosis in high percentage of cases with minimal expenditure of time, and money and often to avoid unnecessary surgery.