Fine needle aspiration cytology of the breast. An overview.

With the development of the Breast Care Center in the University of Michigan, we experienced over a 4-year period a 1,200% increase in the number of breast aspirates received annually in our cytopathology laboratory. During this period, as newcomers to breast aspiration cytology, we achieved an 81.4% positive diagnosis rate in 161 cases of breast cancer without any false positives. This article reviews our experience with fine-needle aspiration cytology of the breast with particular reference to (a) procurement of specimens, (b) cytopathology of benign lesions, (c) cytopathology of malignant lesions, and (d) advantages of the procedure.