Breast screening is performed with methods such as ultrasound, mammography, MRI and PET, and an attempt is made to understand whether there is a suspicious situation or a problem. If there is a situation that raises suspicion of cancer, cell and tissue samples are taken from the detected formation and a definitive diagnosis is sought by microscopic examination.
A breast biopsy is taking a tissue sample from the suspicious part of the breast and having this sample examined by pathologists with microscopic methods.
A biopsy is necessary to decide whether to operate on the suspicious area and to decide on the type and extent of the operation to be performed.
The diagnosis of breast cancer is made with physical examination, imaging methods and biopsy. The rate of correct diagnosis increases in patients in whom these three methods are applied together. Histopathological examination is particularly important in making the diagnosis of cancer. For this reason, many different methods have been defined:
Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB): It is an easy and inexpensive method. Not the tissue itself but cells detached from the tissue are taken into the needle. It allows only the examination of these cells (cytological), and it can be said whether the sampled cells are benign or malignant. If the cytopathologists performing the examination are experienced in breast biopsies, the accuracy rate of FNAB increases.
Core Needle Biopsy: It is performed with the help of a wider-diameter needle. This procedure is carried out after local anesthesia is applied to the breast skin. Since a tissue sample can be taken, it gives more and definitive information about the tumor.
Stereotactic Biopsy: It is a biopsy performed with a special wire or needle of some lesions (often microcalcifications) that cannot be felt in the breast tissue but are detected on mammography.
Incisional Biopsy: It is an open surgical biopsy performed by removing a piece from the suspicious mass in the breast tissue. Although common in the past, it has been abandoned today except in some exceptional cases.
Excisional Biopsy: It is an open surgical biopsy in which the whole mass in the breast tissue is removed. Because of the development of needle biopsy techniques, it is not a preferred biopsy method today.
