Rakhshindah Bajwa, Tariq Zulfiqar.
Association of fine needle aspiration cytology with tumor size in palpable breast lesions.
Biomedica Jan ;26(2):124-9.

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women, age 40 – 50 years. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths i.e about 250,000 women die of this disease every year. Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the accuracy, utility and feasibility of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in diagnosing breast lesions in association with palpable size of the tumour. Material and Methods: It was a descriptive study conducted in the Department of Histopathology; Services Institute of Medical Sciences and Services Hospital Lahore. The study included 464 pati-ents with palpable breast lesions undergoing fine-needle aspiration cytology during a period of three years from January 2006 to December 2008. Results: Using C1 – C5 categories of FNAC smears, 281 out of 464 (60.6%) were categorized as C2 followed by C5 48 (10.3%), there was a significant (P < 0.0001) relationship between palpable size of the breast lesion and cytological category of the specimens. Fibroadenoma was the most fre-quent (161) (34.6%) benign tumour, C3 accounted for 9.3% (43 out of 464). Conclusion: The C1 – C5 grading system for FNAC is the most cost – effective and practical out patient procedure for early diagnosis of breast lesions. It is recommended that FNAC should be used as a routine diagnostic method to maximise availability of health care to patients with breast lesions.

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