ECHO-GUIDED BIOPSY IN UNPALPABLE SOLID BR EAST-LESIONS

We performed 64 echo-guided fine needle (21 G) biopsies of solid unpal pable breast lesions in 58 patients. There was a correlation with cyto histological results in 34 cases (53%): 24 cancers (69% of the biopsie d carcinomas) and 10 benign lesions (35% of the benign lesions biopsie d). There were 4 false negatives, 7 false positives and biopsy did not contribute to diagnosis in 20 cases (31%). Diagnosis was made in all cases on the combined evidence from mammography, echography and cytolo gy. These results emphasize the problems involved in cytodiagnosis: de termining the localization of small lesions, nature of the biopsied le sions (role of existing fibrosis and low cell population in the non-di agnostic biopsies), reading the histological slide.