Breast cancer diagnosis by fine needle aspiration and excisional biopsy. Recurrence and survival.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether fine needle aspiration of palpable breast cancers increases the risk of local or distant recurrence.

STUDY DESIGN

The study group consisted of 58 patients with palpable breast cancers who were treated with breast conservation following diagnosis by fine needle aspiration. The control group consisted of 308 patients with palpable cancers treated in the same way following diagnosis by excisional biopsy. All patients were followed for five years.

RESULTS

The 58 cases diagnosed by fine needle aspiration were significantly younger than the 308 patients diagnosed by excisional biopsy (55 vs. 63, P < .0001). Otherwise, pathology, tumor size, differentiation, progesterone and estrogen receptor content, nodal involvement, stage and treatment were comparable for both groups. Five-year local and distant disease-free survivals were 94% and 86% for cases diagnosed by fine needle aspiration and 86% and 85% for cases diagnosed by excisional biopsy. In multivariate analysis, no single variable was significantly predictive of local recurrence. Tumor size and nodal involvement were significantly predictive of distant disease. Mode of diagnosis, whether by needle or excisional biopsy, was not predictive of local (P = .921) or distant (P = .831) recurrence.

CONCLUSION

This study found no evidence that fine needle aspiration for diagnosis of breast cancer adversely affects outcome.