Ultrasound-Guided Core Needle Biopsies of Breast Invasive Carcinoma: When One Core is Sufficient for Pathologic Diagnosis and Assessment of Hormone Receptor and HER2 Status

Abstract

Ultrasound (US)-guided core needle biopsy is considered the gold standard procedure with regard to preoperative diagnosis of breast carcinomas. However, there is no clear standard for the number of cores considered to be sufficient for pathologic evaluation, including the expression of surface hormone markers and HER2 status. Images and pathologic slides demonstrating breast invasive carcinoma from a single institution were thus retrospectively reviewed over a 12 month period. The results indicated that one core is sufficient for the diagnosis of invasive carcinomas, along with a reliable assessment of hormone receptor and HER2 status in many cases. The option of applying additional cores is recommended for some cases.

Keywords

• ultrasound (US)-guided core needle biopsy
• estrogen receptor (ER)
• progesterone receptor (PgR)
• human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)
• intratumoral heterogeneity