Breast biopsy performed by the helicoid biopsy technique: an experimental study - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia

PURPOSE: to assess the helicoid biopsy performance when carrying out breast biopsies. METHODS: thirty patients with breast cancer submitted to mastectomy were selected at random. Women with a tumor of petreous consistency, nonpalpable, submitted to previous surgical manipulation or containing fluid were excluded. The helicoid biopsy kit and a core biopsy device with a cannula and a 14-gauge-needle, respectively, were used to collect a fragment each from a healthy area and from the tumor of each surgical specimen, for a total of 120 fragments for histological study. Data were analyzed statistically by the parametric Student’s t-test and by the Kappa concordance index at the 95% confidence level, using the SPSS software, version 13. RESULTS: the mean patient’s age was 51.6 (±11.1) years old. The core biopsy showed 93.3% sensitivity, 100% specificity and 96.7% accuracy, and the helicoid biopsy showed 96.7% sensitivity, 100% specificity, and 98.3% accuracy. The comparison of tumor histology and biopsy fragments revealed a high degree of concordance in the diagnoses (Kappa equal to 0.9, with p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: both methods provided a highly accurate histological diagnosis of the lesions. The results of the present study demonstrate that the helicoid biopsy is a reliable alternative for the preoperative diagnosis of breast lesions.