Abstract
Background: Breast carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor of females worldwide. Variety of breast lesions ranging from inflammatory to benign to malignancy can present as palpable breast lump. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment of this lump can prevent a significant morbidity and mortality associated with the disease. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is simple, readily available, rapid, and accurate diagnostic tool for evaluating breast lump.

Aims and Objectives: (i) Correlation of FNAC findings with histopathology (HPE) diagnosis; (ii) To evaluate clinical presentation and demographic profile of patients with breast lump.

Materials and Methods: This study was carried out from June 2021 to July 2022 at C. U. Shah Medical College and Hospital, Surendranagar, in the General Surgery department along with the Pathology department. It was a prospective observational type of study which included 75 patients presented with breast lump. All the patients were evaluated clinically and then investigated by FNAC and either core biopsy or excision biopsy then sample sent to the pathology department. Results of the FNAC were categorized and correlated with HPE findings.

Results: In our study, benign lesions were more common than malignant ones on FNAC. Among benign lesions, fibroadenoma was the most common (36/75 cases) lesion involving the young females (20–29 years), followed by fibrocystic disease (16/75 cases). Malignant lesions-carcinomas were found (6/75 cases) in the age group of 30–39 years. Two out of 75 cases were of phyllodes tumors, followed by other benign lesions in small numbers. Cytological findings were consistent with HPE reports in 72 cases with the sensitivity of 100% and 98.55% specificity.

Conclusion: Findings of FNAC are correlated well with HPE reports which are considered the gold standard method for tissue diagnosis. In addition, FNAC is a simple, rapid, easily available, outpatient department based, and cheap procedure with high sensitivity and specificity. Hence, it can be used as an early diagnostic tool for evaluation of the patient with breast lump and ultimately will guide the clinician to determine the line of treatment.

Key words: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology; Breast Lump; Fibroadenoma; Carcinoma