Modern pathology techniques in breast cancer diagnosis

Introduction of mass screening programs employing mammography resulted inmore frequent detection of small, non-palpable breast lesions. In such cases obtaining material for pathologic or cytological examination necessitates the use of special techniques, including stereotactic fine needle aspiration biopsy directed by mammography or sonography. Stereotactic mammography does also allow marking a part of the breast which should be excised and examined by mammography after excision. Small amount of pathology material from aspiration biopsy does not allow performing determination of steroid receptors with the use of standard biochemistry methods and immunochemistry techniques are advocated in these cases. One of the new tumor characteristics of potential prognostic value is the DNA ploidy, which may be measured by either flow cytometry or cell image analysis. (author)