Diagnostic Usefulness of Tru-Cut Biopsy in the Diagnosis of Breast Lesions

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of Tru-Cut biopsy (TCB) in the diagnosis of breast lesions.Methods: An observational non-interventional cross-sectional review was performed of all TCB reports of a mass or lesion observed in patients admitted between January 2008 and December 2010, at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Results: A total of 275 trucut biopsies were performed during the study period. Histopathology showed 92 (33.5%) malignant lesions, 177 (64.3%) benign lesions and 6 (2.2%) suboptimal or suspicious lesions. Repeat trucut biopsies were done in 29 (16.4%) of the benign cases, 12 (13%) of the malignant cases, and for 6 inconclusive specimens which showed 4 of the 29 benign cases to be malignant lesions, and 5 of the 6 inconclusive cases were also malignant lesions. All 12 malignant cases that had repeat trucut biopsy had a confirmed diagnosis of malignancy. Trucut biospy had a sensitivity of 95.1%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 100%, negative predictive value of 97.2%, and an overall diagnostic accuracy of 98.2%.Conclusion: Trucut biopsy is an accurate alternative to fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of breast lesions with a high diagnostic accuracy of 98.2%.