Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology versus Core-Needle Biopsy for Breast Lesions: A Dilemma of Superiority between the Two

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Core-needle biopsy (CNB) is a minimally invasive procedure used in preoperative diagnosis of breast lumps. It has been seen that in few years, the CNB seems to be replacing the fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), although no study had yet conclusively proved a superiority of one over the other. <b><i>Aims and Objectives:</i></b> The aim of this study was to study the cytohistological spectrum of palpable breast lesions and to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC versus CNB for breast lesions. <b><i>Materials and Methods:</i></b> The study was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pathology and Surgery, over a period of 1 year in 152 patients. All the patients were subjected to FNAC and CNB. Cytosmears were stained with May-Grunwald Giemsa and hematoxylin and eosin was done on CNB and excision biopsy (EB) specimens. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated in percentage with 95% confidence interval with reference to CNB/surgical specimens. Kappa statistics were used to compare the level of agreement between FNAC versus CNB and CNB versus surgical specimens. <b><i>Results:</i></b> A total of 152 patients were taken for FNAC and CNB. EB was performed in only 104 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of FNAC verses CNB in correlation with subsequent histopathology were found to be (93.40 vs. 94.06%), (97.50 vs. 100.00%), (99.00 vs. 100.00%), (84.78 vs. 33.33%), and (94.52 vs. 94.23%), respectively. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> CNB has overcome the pitfall of FNAC but CNB cannot replace FNAC but both procedures are complementary to each other.