What is the Diagnostic Accuracy of Hypocellular Fine Needle Aspiration of the Breast in the Context of an Otherwise Negative Triple Screen

Abstract

Background: We hypothesize that a hypocellullar FNA of a palpable breast mass provides diagnostic accuracy in the context of an otherwise negative triple diagnosis (TD).Methods: A database of 1279 patients with palpable lesions was retrospectively reviewed. Lesions <1.5cm in size, clinical breast exam (CBE) not suspicious for cancer, mammography results of BIRADS I and II, and hypocellular FNAB results were extracted from the database and correlated with final pathology on openbiopsy.Results: There were 276 patients with hypocellular results. Of those, 165 had mammograms of BIRADS I and II. After review of the clinical breast exam data, 83 patients met our study criteria. All were negative for malignancy on open biopsy - a false negative rate of 0% and negative predictive value of 100%.Conclusion: A hypocellular FNA, in the context of a benign CBE and breast imaging study is diagnostically accurate, eliminating the need for breast biopsy.