Introduction: Breast cancer is the second commonest malignancy of females in our country. Given that 70% of all breast surgical procedures are performed for benign breast diseases, the importance of the role of FNAC is becoming immediately apparent. The combination of palpation, mammography & FNAC (Triple Test) has been found to considerably increase the diagnostic accuracy in breast lesions. Hence this study was undertaken to analyze the cyto-morphological features of palpable breast lesions and to classify them in to neoplastic and non-neoplastic and to co-relate with histopathological diagnosis. Materials And Methods: This prospective study was undertaken on 413 patients during January 2004 to December 2005. The informed consent was taken from all the participants. All the palpable breast lumps were included in the study. Lesions difficult to localize on physical examination and patients who refused for the consent were excluded from the study. The clinical data was elicited, examination of the patients performed meticulously. The slides were immediately wet-fixed in alcohol for Papanicolaou’s and H & E stains and few air-dried for Giemsa stain. The various cytomorphological features of the breast lesions was studied, analyzed and placed in the appropriate category and histopathological correlation done wherever available. Results: Based on cytological features the cases were classified in to benign in 319 cases (77.24 %), malignant in 76 cases (18.40 %), suspicious in 5 cases (1.21 %) and un-satisfactory in 13 cases (3.15 %). Histopathological correlation was available in 105 cases. There was a single false negative case in the study. The study revealed a sensitivity of 96.97 %, specificity of 100 % and a diagnostic accuracy of 99.05 %. Conclusion: The present study confirms the view, that FNAC of breast in one of the most valuable diagnostic tool in the assessment and management palpable breast lumps on account of its low cost, minimal morbidity, rapid turnaround time, ability to differentiate benign from malignant lesions with high sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy.
