Application of Probabilistic Approach in Reporting Breast Lesions on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology: Institutional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer of breast is among the most common cancer throughout the world. In Indian women rising incidence of breast cancer remains a concern. Due to lack of health awareness and limited breast cancer screening program the majority of these patients are diagnosed at relatively advanced stages. The FNAC becomes first choice of clinicians for the diagnosis of breast lump. Aim: Present study is aimed to apply probabilistic approach in reporting breast lesions on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, its correlation and accuracy study. Materials and Methods: This was prospective crosssectional study of 188 consecutive patients having palpable breast lump at our institute from period January 2011 to December 2012. FNAC of breast lesions were categorised and histologic correlation was done wherever possible. Results: The total of 188 patients FNAC was evaluated and correlation with histopathology was done in 109 cases. The cases were categorised depending on the cytomorphological features into 1-6 categories scheme proposed by Wang and Ducatman as positive, suspicious, proliferative with atypia, proliferative without atypia, unremarkable and unsatisfactory. The probability of finding carcinoma on histopathology for: Positive for carcinoma, suspicious for carcinoma, epithelial proliferative lesion with atypia, epithelial proliferative lesion without atypia, unremarakable and unsatisfactory were, 100%, 100%, 63.6%, 2.6%, 0% and 0% respectively. Conclusion: FNAC is widely adopted method for diagnosing breast malignancies. Clinical, imaging and cytopathology examination gives accurate diagnosis of breast carcinoma. The probabilistic approach is easy to apply, uniform method and gives accurate diagnosis in reporting of breast FNAC.

Keywords

• cytological features
• cytomorphological breast
• diagnosis of breast lump