Fine needle aspiration biopsy: a useful tool in tumor cytogenetics with special reference to malignant lymphomas

A methods for chromosome analysis of malignant cells by means of fine needle aspiration biopsy has been developed. The method has some obvious advantages compared to conventional surgical biopsy. During a 1-year period 25 consecutive non-Hodgkin, non-Burkitt lymphoma biopsies from 19 patients have been studied. In 14 out of 21 lymph node biopsies chromosome analysis was successful; whereas, four biopsies of subcutaneous lymphomas were unsuccessful.