Efficacy of fine‐needle aspiration biopsy in diagnosis of breast cancer: A retrospective study of 303 cases in Bahrain

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in many countries worldwide and breast lesions remain a common diagnostic dilemma. Fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been suggested as the most important, first line, minimally invasive measure in the management of patients with breast lesions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of FNAB in patients with breast lesions by comparing the diagnostic accuracy of cytology results with that of the definitive histological examination outcome and also to investigate the added value of a single aspirator experience to the overall diagnostic precision and compared with the internationally published results. A retrospective study of 303 breast FNAB samples were carried out by a single experienced cytopathologist with complete comparison records. The prevalence of positive cytologic diagnosis for the breast cancer was determined to be 20.4%. The overall diagnostic accuracy of FNAB was 97.9%, with a specificity and sensitivity of 98.3 and 96.5%, respectively. The overall positive and negative predictive values were determined to be 93.2 and 99.2%, respectively. In addition, the sensitivity was comparable in cases that have been attempted by palpation‐guided sampling compared with those aspirations that were carried out under US guidance. Results from this study confirm that FNAB biopsies performed and reported by a dedicated, single, skilled cytopathologist are highly effective in diagnosis of breast lesions and reliable in differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions with an overall high efficacy in a specialized laboratory‐based FNAB clinic. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.