BREAST CYTOPATHOLOGY
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Major complications of breast fine-needle aspiration.
• Bleeding/hematoma
• Infection
• Pneumothorax
• Vasovagal reaction
• Epithelial displacement/tumor seeding
• Changes/artifacts occurring after aspiration may interfere with radiographic/
mammographic interpretation
Major diagnostic pitfalls of breast fine-needle aspiration.
• False-negative diagnoses
• False-positive diagnoses
Small focus of carcinoma
Fibroadenoma
in a background of a dominant
Papilloma/papillary lesions
benign lesion (such as extensive
Atypical ductal hyperplasia
fibrocystic changes with apocrine
Pregnancy-associated or
metaplasia)
lactational changes
Carcinoma arising in a complex
Skin adnexal tumors
proliferative lesion (such as
Other lesions (such as fat
carcinoma arising in papilloma) necrosis, collagenous
Well-differentiated carcinomas spherulosis)
(such as in situ carcinomas, both
ductal and lobular)
Specific histologic subtypes
(such as tubular carcinoma,
colloid carcinoma)
Rare tumor types (such as
metaplastic carcinoma, apocrine
carcinoma)
Extensively necrotic or cystic
carcinoma
Sampling errors (in lesions that
are small, deep, or have densely
fibrotic stroma)
Poorly prepared or inadequate
smears
Normal cytologic constituents in breast fine-needle aspiration
samples.
• Epithelium (ductal, lobular, apocrine, squamous)
• Myoepithelium
• Macrophages
• Endothelium
• Adipose, stromal, and other mesenchymal issue
Note: See Figures 1.1 through 1.6.