Comparison between fine needle aspiration cytology with histopathology to validate accurate diagnosis of palpable breast lump

A prospective study of 114 patients was conducted to assess the clinical correlation and diagnostic accuracy between FNAC and histopathology of breast lumps. Correlation was found out between clinical suspicion with FNAC and histopathological findings. The results obtained from histopathology were matched with those of FNAC and a correlation was sought based on statistical tests. Statistical analysis was performed on data and sensitivity and specificity with positive and negative predictive value were obtained. Although FNAC was performed on 114 patients presented with breast lump but histopathology available for 75 cases. Fifteen cases were found to be malignant on both FNAC and histopathology. For malignant lesion the sensitivity of the study was 96% and the specificity for malignant lesions was 100%. The positive predictive value was 100% and the negative predictive value was 95.12%. It was concluded that FNAC is a cheap, rapid, reliable and accurate test of diagnosing a palpable breast lump. It provides a good histological correlation, thus avoiding undue surgical biopsy prior to definitive surgery for malignancy.