Diagnosis of breast cancer: Is there any protocol which is applicable worldwide?

Abstract

Objectives: to study the accuracy of cytopathology and to evaluate it as diagnostic pathological tool in breast diseases.
Method: a prospective study in the period between Jan 2006 and Feb 2008. Data were analysed using the SPSS. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were calculated and compared to literature.
Results: Total number of reports was 542, 271 for each cytopathology and histopathology. The overall mean age was 41.0+ 15.3 (ranging between 14- 80) years. The overall sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of cytopathology were 56.1, 80.9 and 63.8% respectively while those of histopathology were 93.5, 83.5 and 89.7% respectively.
Conclusion: FNAC has low sensitivity, specificity and accuracy.

KeyWords: FNAC, breast cancer.