[Study on the erroneous diagnosis of fine needle aspiration of breast cancer]

A histological examination of the breast tumors in 852 patients, after they had received fine needle aspiration, was performed. The false positive and false negative cases were then studied; 32 false positive and 15 false negative cases respectively. As causes for misunderstanding, five items were pointed out in the false positive cases and three in the false negative ones. There were 5 false positive cases in which cellatypia was remarkable, and 3 false negative cases whose cellatypia was not significant. Cytologic diagnosis by fine needle aspiration for these 8 patients was difficult.