Related Experiment Videos
Does core needle breast biopsy accurately reflect breast pathology?
Joseph P Crowe1, Alice Rim, Rebecca J Patrick
1Cleveland Clinic Breast Center and the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, A-80, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.
Surgery
|November 8, 2003
Summary
Core needle biopsy (CB) shows moderate agreement with excisional biopsy (EP) histology, with 83% exact agreement. This study confirms CB is a reliable initial diagnostic tool for breast lesions.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Radiology
- Pathology
Background:
- Core needle biopsy (CB) is the standard initial diagnostic procedure for suspicious breast lesions.
- CB is a sampling technique, necessitating evaluation of its diagnostic accuracy compared to excisional procedures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the concordance between histological findings from core needle biopsy (CB) and subsequent excisional procedures (EP).
- To determine the reliability of CB in establishing a definitive breast lesion diagnosis.
Main Methods:
- Prospective data collection of 3035 CBs performed between 1995-2002.
- Comparison of principal histology (PH) from CB and EP in 1410 cases with subsequent excisional procedures.
- Histologic categories included invasive cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ, atypia/lobular carcinoma in situ, and benign findings.
Main Results:
- Moderate overall agreement (kappa=0.669) between CB and EP histology.
- Complete histologic agreement was observed in 83% of cases.
- The principal histology was identified solely by CB in 5% and solely by EP in 12% of discordant cases.
Conclusions:
- The majority of core needle biopsies (83%) demonstrated exact histologic agreement with excisional biopsies.
- Core needle biopsy proved diagnostic in 88% of procedures, supporting its role as an effective initial diagnostic method.