What is Needle Biopsy?

Needle Biopsy 

Here, 2 types of needle biopsies are discussed, 

• Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) or Fine- Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC)  is a technique in which the cells are aspirated from a tumor using a needle and syringe using  'negative pressure'.
• This technique can also be performed using image-directed guidance.
• It is helpful for diagnosing  deep visceral tumors, which are relatively inaccessible.
• The aspirated tissue does not contain an  intact tissue.
• Because of this, FNA cannot distinguish invasive from noninvasive malignancy.
• For this purpose, other types of biopsy may be more appropriate, if one has to differentiate carcinoma in situ from an infiltrating tumor.

Needle biopsy of Breast

• Cutting core biopsy is a method of pathologic diagnosis, whereas FNA was cytologic. 
• This is  useful for biopsy of subcutaneous masses (below the skin), muscular masses (in the muscles), as well as some internal organs, such as liver, kidney, and pancreas.
• This method is relatively inexpensive and causes minimal disturbance of the surrounding tissue.
• It is  performed with a large-bore needle, such as the Vim Silverman or Tru Cut type. 
• This technique is used to obtain a small piece of intact tumor tissue.
• This allows the pathologist to study the invasion of  cancer cells in the surrounding microenvironment.
• The risk of implanting tumor cells in healthy tissue during biopsy is extremely small.
• Needle biopsy should not be used if the specimen is small, because this increases the chances of the needle missing the lesion.
• Whereas, the biopsy may not even represent of the entire tumor.

Lastly, if the result of tissue obtained by needle biopsy is not consistent with the clinical presentation of the lesion, then incisional or excisional biopsy should be performed.

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