FEASIBILITY OF THYMIDINE LABELING INDEX ON FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATES FROMBREAST-CANCER - COMPARISON WITH SURGICAL SAMPLES

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) provides a suitable diagnostic tool in th e management of patients with breast cancer lesions. The current study reports on tumor proliferative activity, by H-3-Thymidine Labelling I ndex (TLI), assessed on 59 FNA (TLI1) and 28 surgical specimens (TLI2) from the same breast cancer patients. Median TLI values from FNA and surgical material were 1.0% and 0.7%, respectively. In the 28 patients , evaluable for the comparison betweeen TLI1 and TLI2, the association was found to be highly significant (p=0.000). Moreover, no change in tumor proliferative activity was observed in the majority (79%) of cas es when evaluated preoperatively and at surgery. This study confirms t he feasibility of TLI analysts on FNA from breast cancer and provides results superimposable on those obtained in a tissue sample from the s ame patient.