Palpable breast tumors have traditionally been diagnosed with open biopsy. We propose fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology as a reliable, safe initial procedure in these patients.

We performed 248 fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of breast tumors, among which 106 cases were histologically examined during the period of from Jan. 1994 to Dec.1997 at the Department of Surgery, Chonbuk National University Hospital.

Main clinical symptom was palpable mass on breast at the time she visited the hospital. Clinical diagnosis based on symptoms and physical examination had 96.9% of sensitivity, 57.5% of specificity. Based on definite histologic diagnosis, the sensitivity of FNA cytology was 96.9%, specificity 91.7%, diagnostic accuracy 93.5%, respectively. 86.1% of cytologic malignancy were proven malignant histologically, and 100% of cytologically benign cases turned out hitologically benign.

A fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology of solid palpable breast lesions should be diagnostic procedure of choice for those patients classified clinically as probably benign or clinically as malignant.