Ultrasound Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy Proves 100% Accurate in 166 Women

A study of 166 women with suspicious mammograms who underwentultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (USFNAC) showedthe technique to be 100% accurate in diagnosing cancers, reportedDr. Thomas G. Frazier at the annual meeting of the American RadiumSociety, held in Paris, France. This number is based on 3-monthfollow-up of the patients, said Dr. Frazier, who is Senior AttendingSurgeon at the Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,

"We found 17 early cancers in our study (none could be felt),"said Dr. Frazier, who is also Clinical Professor of Surgery atthe Medical College of Pennsylvania. "In our study, the costto diagnose each cancer was $4,667 when USFNAC was used. Thiscompares to $52,505 per cancer diagnosed for standard biopsy procedures.That's more than a 91% savings," he commented.

"We looked at the costs of biopsy alone by averaging thecosts of five patients and found that standard biopsies cost about$5,377. This compares to USFNAC, which costs only $478 per procedure,"he said.