Advanced breast biopsy instrumentation device: Percentages of lesion and surrounding tissue removed

OBJECTIVE. This study reports the percentage of tissue in breast biopsy spe cimens from the lesion, and from the surrounding tissue, in 101 cases of Ad vanced Breast Biopsy Instrumentation (ABBI) biopsies. It also reports the s tatus of the histologic margins fur the malignant biopsies. MATERIALS AND METHODS. One hundred one consecutive ABBI biopsies were revie wed. The ABBI specimen radiographs were used to measure the area occupied b y the entire specimen, the area excluding the Lesion, and the area of the l esion alone. These areas, the Length, and the width of all specimens were s tatistically analyzed using computer software. RESULTS. Of the 101 biopsies, histologic diagnosis was malignant in 27 and benign in 74. Of the 27 malignancies, four had negative margins and 23 had positive margins. Of the 23 with positive margins, eight were ductal carcin oma in situ (tumor within 0.5 mm or less of the surgical margin), and 15 we re not ductal carcinoma in situ (tumor at the surgical margin). The average specimen length was 5.51 cm and the average width was 1.65 cm. The average percentage of lesion tissue was 9.9%. CONCLUSION. An average of 90.1% of tissue removed by ABBI biopsies was from surrounding tissue only. Uninvolved tissue is unfortunately included becau se of the cylindric geometry of the ABBI cannula. The ABBI biopsy has a hig h percentage (85.2%) of positive margins for malignant lesions and is a poo r excisional tool. For diagnostic biopsies, core needle biopsy is preferabl e because a smaller tissue volume is resected directly from the lesion site .