Cytomorphological patterns of palpable breast lesions diagnosed on fine needle aspiration cytology in females

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor and is a leading cause of death worldwide. This study was planned to find out the frequencies of various types of lesions from palpable breasts of female patients through fine needle aspiration cytology. This retrospective study was carried out during December 2017 to May 2018 on 100 female patients presenting with palpable breast mass at University Medical Complex & Research Center, Sargodha, Pakistan. Following written informed consent from patients, a detailed history, patient age, and clinical examination were recorded. The fine needle aspiration cytology was performed and aspirates were processed following the standard methods for cytopathological examination. The cases were grouped according to the five tier reporting format for breast lesion (C1–C5) laid down by the International Academy of Cytologists (IAC) in 2016. The spectrum of breast lesions on cytomorphological interpretation was 54% benign (C2), 2% atypia/suspicious probably benign (C3), 3% suspicious probably malignant (C4) and 41% malignant (C5). Inadequate/insufficient material (C1) was not included in the study. In this study, the specificity, sensitivity, negative and positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology were 100%, 91.11%, 98.18%, 100%, and 98.96%, respectively. In benign lesions, maximum cases were of fibroadenoma (24%) followed by fibrocystic disease (4%), lipoma (3%) while benign phyllodes tumor and galactocele were only 1% each. Breast mass was the chief presenting complaint. Breast cancer was commonest among all the morphological patterns of breast lesions followed by fibroadenoma. This study supports that cytological examination using fine needle aspiration cytology is an economical, rapid, easy and valuable diagnostic tool.