Needle biopsy in the NHS Breast Screening Programme 1996/97: how much and how accurate?

We have shown that 62% of cancers detected in the National Health Service B reast Screening Programme are diagnosed preoperatively by needle biopsy. Al though still short of the 70% national target there is a year on year impro vement in the pre-operative diagnosis rate and further increases should be achievable with greater experience. The numbers of core biopsies being performed is increasing although fine ne edle aspiration cytology remains the mainstay biopsy technique in the UK, C ore biopsy (CB) shows distinct advantages over fine needle aspiration cytol ogy in terms of absolute ability to diagnose malignancy and benignity. Ther e is also a much lower inadequate rate with CB. Importantly, however, we ha ve found that the false negative rate is higher with CB, Various reasons ha ve been advanced to explain this and with greater experience and close atte ntion to biopsy technique this level of false negatives may fall. These data emphasize that, whichever needle biopsy technique is used, the r esults should not be interpreted in isolation but considered in conjunction with clinical and radiological findings for best and safest practice.