The study of ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer

Abstract

Objective To study the value of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (FNA) in the diagnosis of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer, and to compared with conventional ultrasound in the diagnosis of metastatic lymph nodes of breast cancer. Methods Five hundred patients were enrolled into study prospectively from our hospital. The set of standard for patients into study: patients were diagnosed by BI-RADS and classified into class 4 or class 5 preoperative, the maximum diameter of the tumor was less than 2 cm, and there was no case of distant metastasis. Ultrasound guided FNA was performed in each case, and the results were compared with conventional ultrasound diagnosis results, using pathological findings as gold standard. Results The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy in the diagnosis of axillary lymph node by conventional ultrasound were 60.6%, 67.6%, 77.2%, 48.7%, and 63.1%, respectively, and by ultrasound-guided FNA were 78%, 100%, 100%, 71.6%, and 85.6%, respectively. There were significant differences between the two diagnostic methods statistically(χ2=113.2, P<0.001). Conclusions Ultrasound-guided FNA can effectively reduce the number of sentinel lymph node biopsy, which displays a certain clinical value. Key words: Ultrasonography; Breast neoplasms; Lymphatic metastasis; Biopsy, fine-needle