Core-cut biopsy of breast lesions and relationship of physical properties of the sample during fixation in formalin for histology

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women, affects every 10-th to 12-th woman and it is presence in the global population continues to grow. According to the behavior of the samples we introduce the presupposition of the outcome of the final histology.

Material and methods: Core-cut biopsy, a method of breast tissue puncture, was used at the area of interest or on the opacity in the breast. Four and more samples were taken under the ultrasound control. Taken samples were taken in the fixative solution (formaldehyde) and the behavior of the tissue samples during fixation was observed.

Results: In this study, 200 patients were processed. In 143 cases one or more samples decreased. In 57 cases samples floated on the surface. If the samples float on the surface we assume a negative diagnosis, which means that it is not a cancer. The samples have a lower density than the fixative solution and contained particulars of fat and normal breast tissue. On the contrary in those samples that fell to the bottom a positive diagnosis of cancer is expected. They may also contain other histological variants like sclerosing fibrosis, fibroadenoma, adenosis, ductal hyperplasia, other cellular atypia, presence of microcalcifications, etc.

Conclusion: Definitive histology of samples and false negativity mainly affect the patient cooperation during the collection of material, technology of taking and processing the samples, experiens of the physician performing biopsy, processing samples in the laboratory, evaluation of samples by an experienced pathologist.