Usefulness of ultrasound-guided, fine-needle aspiration biopsy for palpable breast tumors.

Abstract

To investigate whether ultrasound (US) guidance improves the sensitivity of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) in patients with palpable breast tumors. A retrospective study. A university hospital. A total of 107 patients with breast tumors (114 lesions) underwent US-guided FNAB and 138 patients (143 lesions) underwent FNAB guided by palpation (standard FNAB). The diagnoses obtained by FNAB were compared with the surgical findings and the diagnostic value of US-guided FNAB was evaluated. The sensitivity of US-guided FNAB was 89.3%, the specificity was 82.9%, and the accuracy was 86.9%. In contrast, the sensitivity of standard FNAB was 61.1%, the specificity was 73.3%, and the accuracy was 65.0%. For breast tumors 2.0 cm or less in diameter, the sensitivity and accuracy of US-guided FNAB were significantly higher than those of standard FNAB. Ultrasound-guided FNAB can improve the preoperative diagnosis of breast cancer, especially in patients with tumors that are 2 cm or less in diameter.