The role and efficacy of Mammotome biopsy (vacuum-assisted breast biopsy)

Mammotome (Vacuum-assisted Breast Biopsy System) is a device for needle biopsy of the breast which is useful for the biopsy of non-palpable lesions. Although Mammotome biopsy is performed on mammography or ultrasound guided, mammography -guided (stereotactic) Mammotome is more important because it is almost only devise for the biopsy of non-palpable microcalcifications. We performed 1000 cases of stereotactic Mammotome biopsy between February 2000 and February 2005 in Cancer Institute Hospital, 31% of the cases were diagnosed as cancer, among these cases 83% were noninvasive carcinoma and 17% were invasive. Of the cases which Mammotome revealed noninvasive carcinoma 17% were found to have invasive lesions after the operation. Mammotome is useful device for the diagnosis of early breast cancer.