Classification of breast lumps on the basis of fine needle aspiration cytology or FNAC

Introduction: FNAC is an essential part of the triple assessment method of preoperative evaluation of breast lumps or masses. So the aim of our present study is evaluation of the accuracy and effectiveness of FNAC for classification of breast lumps in our institute. Materials and Methods: The present retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Pathology, GMERS Medical College & Hospital-Junagadh (Gujarat, India) from January 2017 to December 2018. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were used in order to select the cases for the present study. Necessary and relevant data was statistically evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, FPR, FNR and overall diagnostic accuracy. Kappa statistics and Chi-square tests were applied for further statistical significance. Results: Out of 215 cases of breast lumps that underwent FNAC, a total number of 145 cases were evaluated and classified into five categories from unsatisfactory (C1) to Malignant (C5). Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, FPR, FNR and overall diagnostic accuracy were 90.90%, 98.68%, 1.37%, 9.09%, 96.77%, 96.15% & 96.33% respectively. Conclusion: On the basis of FNAC reports, we can classify breast lesions into various categories from C1 to C5 and these cytological categories show a statistically significant correlation with final diagnoses given in subsequent histopathology reports.