The status of mammographically guided fine needle aspiration biopsy of nonpalpable breast lesions.

Mammographically guided needle biopsy is a promising technique for the evaluation of nonpalpable breast lesions. If proved accurate, it should lead to less discomfort and anxiety, fewer complications, less cosmetic disfigurement, and a significant decrease in cost when compared with conventional surgical biopsy. The use of FNAB should lead to surgery on a much more highly selected group of patients, thus producing higher true positive surgical biopsy rates for breast cancer than has been previously possible in this country. These incentives should serve to increase compliance with screening mammography guidelines by women and their physicians. Nevertheless, it is likely that stereotactic FNAB will be best suited to high volume practices in which a large number of biopsies are performed and in which experienced mammographers, cytopathologists, and breast surgeons use a team approach to manage each patient.