Abstract

BETTENCOURT, Herberto  and  AMENDOEIRA, Isabel. Are core-needle biopsies representative of breast carcinomas. Arq Med [online]. 2012, vol.26, n.4, pp.145-148. ISSN 2183-2447.

Breast cancer primary therapy - surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy - is based on the results of core-needle biopsy (CNB) in our institution, Hospital de São João. Our aim in this study was to evaluate representativeness of CNB regarding histological characteristics as well as molecular features by comparing CNB sample with surgical specimen (SS), by the same breast pathologists. We analyzed 103 consecutive invasive carcinomas with CNB sample and matched SS; the parameters evaluated were: histological subtype (WHO classification), histological grade, vascular invasion, ER, PR and HER2 expression. Concordance rate was: A- Histological subtype - 81.8% for ductal carcinoma, NST; 77.8% for lobular carcinoma; 71.4% “basal cell” carcinoma; 50.0% for micropapillary carcinoma. B - Histological grade - 70.0% for grade 1; 60.0% for grade 2; 85.0% for grade 3. C - Vascular invasion - 14.8%. D - Molecular predictive factors: ER 100%; PR 87.0%; HER2 100% (positive versus negative). With our results we can conclude that: 1- The concordance is high between core-needle biopsy and surgical specimen, except for vascular invasion; 2 - The results on CNB can be validated for primary chemo and hormonal therapy; 3 - Molecular predictive factors (ER, PR, HER2) can be avoided in most SS if positive in CNB.

Keywords : Invasive breast carcinoma; CNB; hormonal receptors; HER2.

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