Evaluation of diagnostic procedures for lump breast

Breast lumps are very common and account for more than half the referrals seen at breast clinics. They can occur in women of any age. Although over 80% of breast lumps are benign, every breast lump must be evaluated by "triple assessment" i.e. a combination of clinical assessment, radiological imagining and a tissue sample taken for either cytological or histological analysis to rule out malignancy. It is the most frequent female cancer in Pakistan accounting for almost 26.6%. The objective of the study was to compare the diagnostic reliability of different procedures, to classify types of lumps breast and to associate serious pathologies with demographic and other habits. Hospital based descriptive study. This study was conducted at the Department of Surgery CMH Kharian. Out of 200 cases of breast lump included in the study, 53 [26.5%] were found malignant on open biopsy while 147 [73.5%] were benign. On FNAC 48 cases were C5, 10 were C4, 40 were C2 and 102 were C3 [77%] cases were found benign. Clinical examination revealed 40 [20%] malignant and 160 [80%] benign cases. Lump breast should be diagnosed by a combination of clinical assessment, radiological imagining and cytological or histological analysis. FNAC can be used as primary screening tool in the management of breast lump. Apart from using as a screening tool for malignancy in lump breast, mammography can be used to ensure accurate positioning of for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures like FNAC/Core and pre-operative localization of non-palpable breast lesions. Whenever there is doubt, diagnosis should be confirmed by open biopsy which remains the gold standard investigation