Repeated fine needle aspirations in the diagnosis of soft tissue metastases in breast cancer.
In 36 patients, treated for breast cancer and with a suspected metastasis in the subcutis, the diagnostic efficacy of repeated fine needle aspiration (FNA) has been evaluated in 39 tumours. By increasing FNA from one to three, the diagnostic sensitivity was increased from 0.59 (95% C.L. 0.33-0.82) to 0.83 (95% C.L. 0.52-0.98). Diagnostic specificity for one aspiration was 0.95 (0.77-1.00), and for two and three aspirates it was 0.96 (0.80-1.00) if suspicious aspirates were considered as positive, and 1.00 for one, two and three aspirations when only aspirates with tumour cells were considered positive. Statistically, three aspirates were significantly better than one in establishing the diagnosis of a soft tissue tumour in patients with breast cancer.
Pedersen
L
L
Department of Oncology ONA, Finsen Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Balslev
I
I
Guldhammer
B
B
Rose
C
C
D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*