The cytology of soft tissue tumours

In order to achieve the best possible results of FNA certain prerequisites must be followed including a close cooperation between the surgeon and the cytopathologist, the combination of clinical, radiographic data and cytodiagnosis, awareness of the diagnostic pitfalls, and refraining from a specific diagnosis of benignity or malignancy when the cytologic criteria are doubtful. Fine needle aspiration and cytodiagnosis is a valuable tool in the preoperative diagnosis of soft tissue tumours and may replace open or coarse needle biopsy in most cases.