M. S. Siddegowda, Tahniyat Ara
BACKGROUND Breast cancer is a common malignant lesion in women. Fine needle aspiration cytology has high sensitivity and specificity and is a simple, rapid and safe method to diagnose breast lesions. The aim of the study was to evaluate malignant breast lesions and correlate the fine needle aspiration cytology diagnosis with histopathological findings. METHODS This is a prospective study done in the Department of Pathology of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya. The study was conducted for a period of 1.5 years from January 2016 to June 2017. There was a total 200 FNAC cases. Out of 200 cases of breast FNACs evaluated, histopathological correlations were available for 88 cases. Among 200 cases, two cases were inadequate for evaluation, 160 cases were benign, three cases were diagnosed as atypia probably benign, one case was diagnosed as suspicious of malignancy and 34 cases were diagnosed as malignant. RESULTS Out of 34 malignant cases, majority of the cases were in the age group of 41 to 50 years followed by 31 to 40 years. Of the 34 malignant cases, 28 were reported as Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma, Not Otherwise Specified (NOS) type, three cases were reported as mucinous carcinoma breast on cytology, one case was reported as medullary carcinoma breast, one case was reported as papillary carcinoma breast and one case was reported as metaplastic carcinoma breast on cytology. Among these 34 cases, 27 cases were available for histopathological correlation which proved to be malignant on histopathology also. FNAC proved to be 100% sensitive and specific in the diagnosis of malignant lesions. CONCLUSIONS Fine needle aspiration cytology is a highly sensitive and specific technique for diagnosis of malignant breast lesions.
