Role of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in Diagnosis of Breast Lesions

Accurate diagnosis of breast lesions requires triple assessment approach comprising of clinical, radiological and pathological examination. This was a retrospective study of 55 cases of breast lesions diagnosed over a period of 6 months. Diagnosis on FNAC was correlated with that of histopathology wherever available. Out of 55 cases of breast lesions, 27 cases were malignant, 16 were of proliferative breast lesion without atypia (12 cases of fibroadenoma,two cases each of Phyllodes tumor and Ductal papilloma), 7 were benign lesions including composed of three cases of fat necrosis, two cases each of granulomatous mastitis and benign cystic lesion consistent with fibrocystic disease. Three cases were diagnosed as proliferative breast lesion with atypia of which one turned out to be low grade duct carcinoma on histopathology and remaining two were fibroadenomas. Histopathological correlation was present in 46 cases. The sensitivity and specificity of FNAC was 100% and 88.9% respectively in diagnosis of the breast lesions. Fine needle aspiration cytology is an easy, rapid, cost effective and accurate method for diagnosis of breast lesions