Safety and Accuracy of Core Needle Biopsy for Soft Tissue Masses in an Ambulatory Setting

Background. Percutaneous needle biopsy has been found to be a safe and accurate method for the initial investigation of soft tissue masses. The notion exists that needle biopsies should be performed in specialized sarcoma centers, which can place a financial burden on patients without a sarcoma center near their place of residence. There is no consensus in the current literature regarding the diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of clinic-based percutaneous core needle biopsy performed by community orthopedic surgeons with fellowship training in musculoskeletal oncology. Questions/Purposes. Our primary goal was to determine if office-based core needle biopsy of soft tissue masses could safely yield accurate diagnoses when performed by a community orthopedic surgeon with fellowship training in musculoskeletal oncology. Patients and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 105 patients who underwent percutaneous core needle biopsy of soft tissue masses in a community clinic. All procedures were performed by one fellowship-trained musculoskeletal oncologist. Accuracy of the initial clinic-based needle biopsy was determined through comparison to the results of pathological analysis of the surgically excised masses. Final data analysis included 69 patients who underwent both clinic-based biopsy and subsequent surgical excision of their masses. Results. We found clinic-based biopsies to be 87.0% accurate for exact diagnosis and 94.2% accurate in determining whether the mass was benign or malignant (p<0.0001). Minor complications related to the clinic-based biopsy occurred in 5.80% of cases, with no documentation of major complications. Conclusions. Our results provide evidence that office-based percutaneous biopsy can be administered safely and yield accurate, clinically useful results when performed by a fellowship-trained musculoskeletal oncologist.