Needle versus excisional biopsy for noninvasive and invasive breast cancer: report from the National Cancer Data Base, 2003-2008.

BACKGROUND: Needle biopsy to diagnose breast cancer may soon become a quality measure for which hospitals are held accountable. This study examines the utilization of needle versus excisional biopsy in a contemporary cohort of patients and identifies factors associated with biopsy type.
METHODS: Women with nonmetastatic, clinical Tis-T3 breast cancers diagnosed between 2003 and 2008 were selected from the National Cancer Data Base, which captures information from ~79% of breast cancers in the United States. Patients whose cancer was diagnosed by needle biopsy (fine-needle aspiration or core) were compared with patients diagnosed via excision, analyzing patient, hospital, and tumor characteristics. Logistic regression was used to identify important predictors of biopsy type.
RESULTS: Of 373,837 patients, 303,677 (81.2%) underwent needle biopsy while 70,160 (18.8%) had excisional biopsy to diagnose their cancer. The needle biopsy rate increased from 73.8 to 86.7% whereas excisional biopsy declined from 26.2 to 13.3% over the study period (P < 0.001). In 2008, patients were statistically significantly more likely to undergo excisional biopsy if they had stage 0 disease; were treated at low-volume (<25 cases/year), community, or Atlantic census region hospitals; were <40 years old at diagnosis; were less educated; or were Asian/Pacific Islander (P < 0.001). The median rate of needle biopsy at high-volume hospitals (≥140 cases/year) was 89.6%.
CONCLUSION: The use of needle biopsy is increasing. Tumor stage, hospital volume, and hospital location were the most statistically significant predictors of biopsy type. Rates of needle biopsy at high-volume hospitals suggest that appropriate utilization of this preferred diagnostic method should approach 90%.