Breast cancer is the commonest malignancy in women worldwide and adequate preoperative evaluation is the most essential part of management of breast lumps. Management of breast lumps is challenging in resource poor settings. Although core needle biopsy has evolved as the diagnostic tool of choice for breast lumps, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) still remains an important diagnostic tool as it is a quick, safe, cheap and reliable procedure that can be done bedside. With this background, we have conducted a prospective study to compare the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC in differentiating the benign and malignant lesions of palpable breast lump with histopathological correlation.

Conclusion: From our results, it can be advised that the patients in whom FNAC is unequivocally diagnostic for cancer can be managed directly by mastectomy or any other definitive therapy. We conclude that FNAC is a very important preliminary diagnostic test in palpable breast lumps, and if done by expert hands, the results show a high degree of correlation with the final histopathology report.

Key words: FNAC, Breast lump, Carcinoma of breast, Diagnosis.

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Dr Amanulla Shaik

Assistant Professor of Surgery, Government Medical College (RIMS), Kadapa, India