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Fine Needle Aspiration Cytodiagnosis As A Pre‐Requisite For Primary Medical Treatment of Breast Cancer
Author(s) -
POWLES T. J.,
TROTT P. A.,
CHERRYMAN G.,
CLARKE S.,
ASHLEY S.,
COOMBES R. C.,
JONES A. L.,
SINNETT H. D.,
NASH A. G.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1365-2303
pISSN - 0956-5507
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2303.1991.tb00378.x
Subject(s) - medicine , breast lumps , breast cancer , fine needle aspiration cytology , mammography , fine needle aspiration , radiology , cancer , cytology , chemotherapy , breast carcinoma , gynecology , general surgery , surgery , pathology , biopsy
The accurate non‐surgical diagnosis of breast lumps allows assessment of breast cancer patients for conservation or neoadjuvant primary treatment before surgical intervention. We have analysed the accuracy of clinical assessment, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), and mammography in over 868 women seen in a symptomatic breast clinic. Clinical examination by an experienced breast physician, together with FNAC, detected over 99% of the cancers with a 12% false positive rate. A cytological diagnosis of definite carcinoma was obtained in 69% of women with breast cancer with no false positive result from the women with benign conditions producing a 100% positive predictive value. These results indicate that it would be acceptable to give pre‐surgical systemic endocrine or chemotherapy to women with positive cytology which is therefore a prerequisite for a neoadjuvant therapy programme.