Ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy for breast cancer: preliminary report.

BACKGROUND

Ultrasound-guided automated percutaneous core needle biopsy (US-CNB) for breast tumors has been introduced into clinical practice, but it has not yet been used routinely. We evaluated its usefulness, especially in terms of histological accuracy.

METHODS

Thirty-one consecutive patients underwent mammography followed by breast biopsy with the automated core needle biopsy device.

RESULTS

Mammography was highly suggestive of malignancy or suspicious abnormalities in 17 cases whose histological findings from US-CNB specimens were invasive ductal carcinoma without exception. The other 14 cases with benign or probably benign mammography findings showed no malignancy histologically in the US-CNB specimens. In cases of malignancy, the accuracy rates of histological findings for the specimens obtained by US-CNB were 94.1% in histological type, 100% in direct infiltration, 82.4% in lymphatic infiltration, 82.4% in venous infiltration, 94.1% in histological grading and 82.4% in intraductal spread.

CONCLUSION

US-CNB was useful for making reliable preoperative histopathological diagnosis and may substitute fine needle aspiration biopsy and surgical biopsy.