[Diagnosis of non-palpable breast lesions: contribution of cytological punctures after stereotaxic localization].

The authors reviewed the accuracy of stereotaxic fine-needle aspiration cytology. Two hundred-twenty-eight lesions were studied: 103 benign lesions, 125 cancers. Inadequate sample was obtained in 26% of cases. None of the cytology reports were false-positive, whereas 77% of the suspect cytologic reports were malignant on histology. In strongly suspicious lesions at mammography, the decision to perform surgical biopsy should not be postponed as false negative cytologic findings (7 cases) are possible. In patients with a low suspicious lesion, cytology found six cancers. The benign-to-malignant ratio of excisional biopsies of non palpables lesions should be reduced by stereotaxic fine-needle aspiration cytology.