Abstract

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology for the diagnosis of mammary lesions has been widely used during the last 25 years with a large spectrum of indication (bening, malignant, suspicious, palpable, nonpalpaple), minimal discomfort and 97-99 percent of sensitivitiy, 98-100 percent of specivity, 95-99 percent of accuracy. For the diagnosis of mammary carcinoma FNA is preferable to frozen section, as it gives the advantage of collaboration of the patient to the treatment planning. FNA does not only achieve the final diagnosis, but also gives the chance of detection of the prognostic parameters (histological subtype, degree of differentiation, receptor status, oncogens, proliferative index etc.) and even invasiveness or noninvasiveness of the tomour. It has been proven a quick, accurate and cost effective tool, both for the diagnosis and for the follow-up of the mammary carcinoma.