Making sense of Fine Needle Aspiration results

HongKongMom

The results of this FNA result in a C4 (suspicious for malignancy) grade.   I am confused why its only suspicious, and what of the following I should be most concerned about.  Details of the pathology report are:

-  Large Clusters of Epithelial cells

- Epithelial cells are crowded and overlapping

- A few papillary structures noted

- necrotic cellular debris is present in the background

- Some nuclei are large irregular with coarse chromatin and small nucleolus.

- a few histiocyte indicitave of necrotic change.

Which of the above are most worrying?  would necrotic debris, and atypical nuclie indicate presence of malignancy?

the doctor view is this type of cell morphology is 90% linked to malignancy and is recommending a surgicial computer aided core biopsy to get a 100% diagnosis, and has scheduled a mastectomy 2 weeks later.  She believes this is very  early stage ....but i am concerned that the papillarry structures and necrotic debris indicate a worrying level of aggressiveness with higher chance of spread? The FNA was requested due to a cluster of calcifications in one breast.

How worried do we have to be with the above?

shaz101

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hi Hong Kong mum. I hope you have some answers. My FNA results came in a day later than yours. What are the next steps for you? I have an appointment with the surgeon this week. I'm very scared. I wish you all the best.

Sharon xxx

PoppyK

Without the core biopsy, why would the doctor schedule a mastectomy? In early stages, a lumpectomy is usually recommended. Mastectomy is a drastic approach for early stage cancer.... if it even is cancer. You won't know that until after the core biopsy.

Keep us updated! Hope you get benign results! And don't be afraid to get a second opinion!