PREOPERATIVE FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION FROM HUMAN BREAST-CANCER IS A VALUABLE SAMPLING MATERIAL FOR PROGESTERONE-RECEPTOR AND CYTOMETRIC DNA ANALYSIS

In a breast cancer series (n=54), preoperative fine needle aspiration (FNA) was compared with biopsy at primary surgery as a source of mater ial for the determination of progesterone receptor (PgR) content by en zyme immune assay. The respective results manifested a strong correlat ion (r(s)=0.82). The fact that PgR content was usually higher ire FNA samples than in the corresponding biopsy samples and the finding that 11% of the tumours were PgR positive in FNA but PgR negative in the co rresponding biopsy samples suggest a greater proportion of malignant c ells to be obtained with FNA than in surgical biopsy. In another breas t cancer series (n=50), corresponding comparisons for DNA flow cytomet ry showed concordance in ploidy status (diploid vs. non-diploid) in 84 % of cases and a strong correlation in S-phase fraction values (r(s)=0 .74). At DNA image cytometry, concordant results (Auer I+II vs, Auer I II+IV) were obtained in 87% of the cases. To sum up, FNA seems to be a useful sampling technique for PgR determination and DNA cytometry.