Corel Medical Series: Cancer/Corel Medical Series: Cancer.iso/mac/Program/c06.dxr/00089_Field_SRC.c06.C.14.txt

Text File | 1997-01-28 | 1KB | 13 lines

Biopsy
• Almost all biopsies of suspicious breast masses used to be open surgical biopsies, but fine needle aspiration
  (FNA) biopsy is being used more often. This simple office procedure can usually give a definitive answer about
  the possibility of cancer, but interpretation by a specially trained cytologist or pathologist is necessary to
  evaluate the tissue correctly. About 1 in 20 aspirations does not confirm a malignancy when one is known to be
  present (false negative), so either a repeat FNA, a needle-guided biopsy or an open surgical biopsy should be
  done if mammography or physical findings are suspicious and the initial FNA is negative.
• Mammography may help guide the surgeon to do an open biopsy of the correct area. This is especially
  important for non-palpable lesions. A needle is placed within or adjacent to the lesion under x-ray guidance
  (needle localization). A mammogram is then done to make sure the suspicious area has been removed.
• Stereotactic fine-needle biopsy and core biopsy are specialized mammography procedures, similar to needle
  localization, that rely on computer assistance to allow a biopsy needle to be positioned even more precisely.
  These techniques are used mainly for small non-palpable lesions detected by mammography alone.