A review of fine needle aspiration cytology and its scope in Papua New Guinea.

Fine needle aspiration cytology has become a very popular investigative procedure in many parts of the world for the diagnosis and management of primary neoplasms. Nevertheless the technique is still not very familiar to most clinicians in Papua New Guinea. Hence this paper provides a brief review of fine needle aspiration biopsy with special emphasis on its methodology, applications and usefulness in a Papua New Guinean setting and on its limitations. It is hoped that such a simple procedure will be used more often in future for tumour diagnosis.