Management of patients with intermediate (C3) cytology and a solitary breast lump

The records of all patients who had a C3 result on fine needle aspiration c ytology (FNAC) over a 3-year period were reviewed. Clinical and mammographi c findings at presentation were correlated with histopathological diagnosis . Of 43 patients, 32 patients underwent excision biopsy. Histology was beni gn in 25 patients, eight patients had an invasive breast carcinoma, two a p hyllodes tumour and one had widespread ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). All but two of the patients with invasive tumours had abnormalities on clinica l examination or imaging. In two patients there was no clinical or mammogra phic suspicion of malignancy. A C3 breast cytology result must be taken ser iously as it is frequently an indicator of underlying malignancy. These res ults suggest that definite histology should be obtained in all patients bec ause of the unacceptably high false-negative rate of clinical and radiologi cal assessment in this group. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.