Diagnosis of the impalpable lesion

The use of mammography, to aid the diagnosis of patients with symptoms or as a screening test, presents the problem of diagnosing mammographic abnormalities not associated with a palpable lesion. To deal adequately with this, close co-operation is required amongst the radiologist, clinician/surgeon and pathologist/cytologist. A significant number of unnecessary biopsies have been carried out when each of the opinions or procedures are performed in isolation and when communication between the different specialties involved is via formal reports as compared to assessment carried out jointly.