It seems only yesterday when I celebrated the victory of convincing our urologists to assist me in promoting fineneedle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) procedure as the initial diagnostic tool in evaluation of patients with prostate lesions. The design of the plan was to initially assess the diagnostic accuracy of FNAB by simultaneous performance of fine-and core-needle biopsy procedure in patients with prostate lesions. I even bought an extra syringe holder and assembled a FNAB package and sent it to our urologists as a gift.
Within a short period of time, we collected over 250 cases of prostate FNAB with their corresponding histologic diagnoses. In this study, we demonstrated a concordance of 95 percent between the two procedures and reported our results in a national meeting. This was a wonderful experience.
The tragedy began when we received the comments of the reviewers of a urology journal refusing our manuscript. The comments were short: FNAB was out of the race. The winner was the ultrasound guided ccre biopsy. Since then, I have received no FNAB of the prostate, and this saddens me. Thus, the issue of core-needle biopsy versus fine-needle aspiration biopsy in nonpalpable breast lesions seems familiar. I often ask myself "Are we witnessing the occurrence of the same scenario that we once experienced in prostate?" Is core breast biopsy an inevitable alternative to FNAB in occult breast lesions?
Breast cancer remains a medical and social challenge and is associated with significant physical and psychological impairment. This has led to a multidisciplinary effort for early detection and better management of patients with breast cancer.
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