Fine needle aspiration biopsy

This kind of biopsy is performed with an ordinary syringe with a needle and is usually guided by ultrasound which allows to control the needle’s position throughout the procedure and ensure the accuracy of hitting the area under examination. 

Fine needle aspiration biopsy allows to obtain very small fragments of the tissue in the form of separate cells and their complexes which does not replicate the structure of the examined tissue. The advantages of this method are its accessibility, speed, low cost, howeverб the accuracy and specificity are quite low. Due to a small amount of the material and lack of its structure, it is usually impossible to accurately determine all necessary features of the tumor and therefore – to prescribe treatment. Based on the results of the fine needle aspiration biopsy you can only say with a certain probability if the tumor is malignant or benign and approximately state what type of tumor it is. That’s why this type of diagnostics is only auxiliary. It is used to clarify if the regional lymphatic nodes are affected when all characteristics of the main tumor are known, or to examine cystic fluid formations.