Publication:

Cyto-histopathological correlation in palpable breast lesions

Background Breast lesions are one of the most commonly encountered lesions in women which require prompt pathological confirmation by fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and histopathological examination.

Methods We conducted a prospective study from January 2015 to December 2015. A total 98 cases included presenting with palpable breast lump in which 80 cases were also subjected to surgical biopsy or mastectomy.

Results Out of 98 cases, 34.7% benign cases, 59.2% malignant cases, and 6.1% non-neoplastic case were diagnosed cytologically in which 7 (7.1%) cases of mastitis, 2 cases (2%) of granulomatous mastitis, 22 cases (22.4%) of fibroadenoma, 11 cases (11.2%) of benign breast disease or fibrocystic disease, 10 (10.2%) cases of dyskaryotic changes , 45 cases (45.9%) carcinoma. Mean age was 46.4±14.2 years. Majority of cases 29(29.6%) belonged to 41-50 years age group. Majority of the masses were situated in the left breast (57.2%) in the upper outer quadrant (40.8%). In addition to breast lump, pain in 22 cases, bloody discharge in 5 cases, ulceration in 8 cases and nipple retraction in 11 cases were present. Histology was available for 80 cases in which 5 (6.3%) cases of non-neoplastic, 27 cases (33.7%) benign and 48 cases (60%) of malignant histology. FNAC proved to be 91.25 % sensitivity in the diagnosis of all breast lesions in our study.

Conclusions So we concluded that breast lesions are easily accessible to FNAC, which is an easy, cost effective and less time-consuming procedure. FNAC is used to diagnose both benign and malignant lesions.