Abstract:

ABSTRACT Purpose: Cystic breast lesions are a common finding in young as well as elderly females. Although, mostly benign; they can at times be malignant too. Timely diagnosis is possible with help of Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). This study was carried out with the aim of studying the panorama of various cystic breast lesions on FNAC in our setup. Materials and Methods: This was a four year prospective study carried out from May 2010 to January 2014. Cystic nature of breast mass was confirmed by palpation and by sonomammography. FNAC was then performed and the smears were stained with MGG and Papanicolaou stain. Results: Out of the 72 cases that were diagnosed to be cystic breast lesions clinically or on sonomammography, 64 were found to be benign and 08 were found to be malignant on FNAC. Retrospective imaging correlation of the 08 cystic cases revealed that they were of complex cystic nature and had either thick septae( 03), solid areas (04) or dense contents (01) within. This internal nature of cystic lesions that were found to be malignant on FNAC was not identifiable by clinical palpation alone. None of the lesions diagnosed as simple cystic lesion on sonomammography was found to be malignant on FNAC. Conclusions: FNAC is a satisfactory technique for the primary categorization of palpable cystic breast lumps into benign and malignant categories. Cystic breast lesions are more commonly benign than malignant. Palpation alone cannot identify the simple or complex nature of any palpable cystic lesion and hence sonomammography and ultrasound guided FNAC are indicated in complex cystic lesions of breast.

Keywords: