NEW YORK, May 04 (Reuters Health) -- Taking tissue samples from the breast with a large-core needle is a simple, safe and accurate alternative to surgical removal of breast tissue for the diagnosis of possible cancer, according to Boston researchers.
Using a relatively large size needle and special imaging techniques, Dr. Jack E. Meyer and colleagues from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, took 1,836 samples of tissue from lesions that looked suspicious on mammography or breast ultrasound, but could not be felt in the breast.
Out of these samples, 412 (22%) were found to be cancerous, they report in the May 5th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Based on information from laboratory and imaging studies, the researchers suspected that they might have missed something in 202 of these samples. When they re-did the needle biopsy, they found another 32 cancers among them.
It is important for women to know there is an accurate alternative to surgical removal of breast tissue for the diagnosis of potential breast cancer, said Meyer in an interview with Reuters Health.
The procedure takes about an hour, he noted, and costs one half to one third of a surgical biopsy. A local anesthetic is used during the procedure but no stitches are needed afterwards and women typically return directly to work.
"I can't tell you how much praise we get from doctors and women about the way this can be done," Meyer said. "Especially from women who've had a surgical biopsy. They can't believe the procedure is as easy as it is."
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association 1999;281:1638-1641.
