BACKGROUND: In this study, we combined two techniques, ultrasound-guided needle biopsy and flow cytometry (FCM), to explore their value in patients with enlarged lymph nodes.
METHODS: We compared the results of 198 needle biopsies on FCM and pathology. Forty-two were done by (fine needle aspiration, FNA), and the remaining 156 with (core needle biopsy, CNB), in 36 of 156 patients, a FNA was performed in the same lymph node after completion of the CNB. Except for five types of pathological entities, the rest were differentiated only detected or undetected tumours as the outcome distinction.
RESULTS: Among the 198 needle biopsies, 13 were inadequate specimens, while the remaining 185 had pathological findings, including 47 benign and 138 neoplastic findings. Thirty-six patients underwent puncture with both FNA and CNB, both needles produced identical results by FCM, but more cells were obtained by FNA. Among the pathologically positive results, there were 23 missed diagnoses in FCM, in contrast, evidence of tumours was observed in the FCM images of 15 needle biopsies that reported benign or findings that were inconsistent with pathology, and the final diagnosis was consistent with the FCM in 10 cases. FCM detected haematolymphoid tumours with a sensitivity of 87.8% and a specificity of 91.9%.
CONCLUSIONS: The combination of FCM and ultrasound-guided lymph node needle biopsy can quickly provide guidance for clinical decision-making. We recommend that all lymph node needle biopsies be sent for FCM, the specimen can be obtained by the last puncture with FNA.

UNASSIGNED: Renal mass biopsy (RMB) has regained clinical interest in recent years due to the pursuit of individualized and precision medicine. Renal mass core needle biopsy (RMCNB) for histopathology (HP), with or without liquid-based cytology (LBC), has been used increasingly in our hospital. This study investigated factors influencing the HP diagnostic yield of RMCNB, and compared the diagnostic rate between HP alone and HP plus LBC.
UNASSIGNED: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, a total of 134 patients who underwent ultrasound-guided percutaneous RMCNB in the National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College between January 2015 and May 2022 were enrolled. All biopsies were performed using an 18-gauge core needle biopsy gun, and the sampling tissues and exfoliative cells of 18-gauge core needle groove were delivered for HP and LBC diagnosis, respectively. The patient demographics, clinical indications, tumor characteristics, number of biopsies, final pathological diagnosis, and follow-up data were reviewed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association between variables and HP diagnostic yield of RMCNB. The diagnostic rate between HP and HP plus LBC was compared using McNemar\'s test and agreement was evaluated using the Kappa score.
UNASSIGNED: The most common indication of RMCNB was renal masses with a radiological diagnosis of locally advanced disease or distant metastasis (86.6%). The HP diagnostic yield was established in 88.1% (118/134) of cases, and the diagnostic rate of HP plus LBC was 94.0% (126/134). Logistic regression analyses revealed that non-enhanced area exceeding 50% [odds ratio (OR): 0.021, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.003-0.134, P<0.001] and number of core biopsies (OR: 9.479, 95% CI: 1.528-58.794, P=0.016) were associated with the HP diagnostic yield of RMCNB. The diagnostic rate of HP plus LBC was significantly higher than that of HP alone (94.0% vs. 88.1%, P=0.008), and they showed substantial agreement (Kappa =0.638, P<0.001). Meanwhile, in the non-enhanced area ≥50% subgroup, the diagnostic rate between HP plus LBC and HP alone was significantly different (86.7% vs. 60%, P=0.008), and the agreement was fair (Kappa =0.375, P=0.009).
UNASSIGNED: RMCNB has a high diagnostic yield with a minimum of two high-quality core biopsies, LBC can improve the diagnostic yield of HP alone, especially in masses with large non-enhanced area.

UNASSIGNED: Ultrasound (US)-guided core needle biopsy (CNB) is widely applied in the pathological diagnosis of suspicious axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) in breast cancer. However, the number of specimens removed during biopsy is currently based on the preference of the individual radiologist. This study aims to analyze the specimen number based diagnostic yields of US guided CNB of suspicious ALNs in breast cancer.
UNASSIGNED: Core biopsy specimens of suspicious lymph nodes were prospectively obtained from breast cancer patients treated at our hospital between November, 2018, and July, 2019. Four specimens were obtained from each patient and labeled 1-4 in the order they were removed. Each specimen underwent pathological evaluation to determine whether metastasis had occurred. The diagnostic yields of the specimens were calculated and differences in diagnostic accuracy according to the number of specimens were evaluated by McNemar\'s test.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 167 patients were enrolled, and 139 (83.2%) cases were identified as metastasis by CNB. The diagnostic yields were: 74.2% (specimen 1), 87.8% (specimens 1-2), 91.2% (specimens 1-3), and 94.6% (specimens 1-4). The increases in diagnostic yield from specimen 1 to 1-2 and from specimens 1-2 to 1-4 were significant; however, no significant differences were detected between specimens 1-3 and the first two, or between specimens 1-4 and the first three in this sample size. The lower diagnostic abilities for the first two specimens were associated with shorter long- and short-axis lengths of lymph nodes on US.
UNASSIGNED: Although the second specimen contributed significant diagnostic yield of suspicious axillary lymph nodes in core biopsy in breast cancer, a minimum number cannot be determined by this study. Additional specimens may improve diagnostic yield particularly in patients with small nodes.

UNASSIGNED: The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B32 trial reported that the detection rate of sentinel lymph nodes by core needle biopsy (CNB) is higher than that by segmental resection. However, there are few reports regarding the detection rate of sentinel lymph nodes by vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB). Therefore, we analyzed the impact of preoperative biopsy methods on the surgical modes of 3,966 patients with breast cancer in our center.
UNASSIGNED: In total, 3,966 female breast cancer patients [clinical tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage I-III] were enrolled in this study. Preoperative pathological diagnosis methods included fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy, CNB, excision biopsy, and VABB. According to the time of diagnosis. The data were analysis by chi square test, variance analysis and the Kaplan-Meier time series in SPSS 22.0.
UNASSIGNED: There was a decrease in the number of patients that underwent excision biopsy (7.3% to 2.7%) and intraoperative freezing (89.4% to 28.9%) over time, while CNB exhibited an increasing trend (1.6% to 55.3%). The positive rates of VABB, CNB, excision biopsy, and FNA were 99.5%, 97.1%, 97.9%, and 82.2%, respectively, and the false negative rates were 0%, 1.8%, 0.34%, and 8.9%, respectively. The overall breast-conserving rate was 36.7%, while the breast-conserving rate for VABB was 57.1%. The axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy rate of cN0 patients was 48.3%, and the intraoperative frozen group (36.7%) and excision biopsy group (39.5%) were lower than the CNB (57.1%) and VABB (77.9%) groups. Until December 2019, there were 350 cases with tumor recurrence or metastasis. The methods of biopsy were not correlated to the cumulative survival time.
UNASSIGNED: Changes to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer has a profound impact on the method of tumor biopsy. VABB biopsy offers advantages such as accurate diagnosis, a greater volume of tissue taken at one time, minimally invasive and repeatable, and does not affect the surgical approach and prognosis of patients. It will gradually become the primary method of preoperative pathological evaluation of breast cancer.

UNASSIGNED: To develop an ultrasound-based deep learning model to predict postoperative upgrading of pure ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) diagnosed by core needle biopsy (CNB) before surgery.
UNASSIGNED: Of the 360 patients with DCIS diagnosed by CNB and identified retrospectively, 180 had lesions upstaged to ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion (DCISM) or invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) postoperatively. Ultrasound images obtained from the hospital database were divided into a training set (n=240) and validation set (n=120), with a ratio of 2:1 in chronological order. Four deep learning models, based on the ResNet and VggNet structures, were established to classify the ultrasound images into postoperative upgrade and pure DCIS. We obtained the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) to estimate the performance of the predictive models. The robustness of the models was evaluated by a 3-fold cross-validation.
UNASSIGNED: Clinical features were not significantly different between the training set and the test set (P value >0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of our models ranged from 0.724 to 0.804. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the optimal model were 0.733, 0.750, and 0.742, respectively. The three-fold cross-validation results showed that the model was very robust.
UNASSIGNED: The ultrasound-based deep learning prediction model is effective in predicting DCIS that will be upgraded postoperatively.

BACKGROUND: Core needle biopsy (CNB) plays an important role in the preoperative axillary lymph node (ALN) assessment in breast cancer (BC) patients with the development of treatment, but little is known about the axillary lymph flow after CNB of ALNs. This study aimed to investigate the changes of lymphatic flow after CNB of sentinel lymph node (SLN) in a rabbit model.
METHODS: The axillary SLN was biopsied in a rabbit model, and the changes of sentinel lymph flow were observed by methylthioninium chloride imaging at 1 and 12 days after the biopsy. Furthermore, the afferent lymphatic vessel was ligated and imaged once every 3 days to assess the changes of lymphatic flow.
RESULTS: The SLN biopsied was characterized by disorganized medullary sinus containing erythrocytes, whereas clean medullary sinus containing a normal population of circulating lymphoid cells was observed in the contralateral normal SLN. At 1 day after biopsy, the sentinel lymphatic drainage was blocked. At 12 days after biopsy, the sentinel lymphatic flow was reconstructed or repaired. Ligation of afferent lymphatic vessel further confirmed the reconstruction of lymphatic flow.
CONCLUSIONS: The sentinel lymphatic flow changes after CNB in a rabbit model, but it can be reconstructed or repaired.

BACKGROUND: A retrospective analysis of diagnoses was performed in patients with phyllodes tumors of the breast (PTB) who received preoperative core needle biopsy (CNB) and had breast surgery at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center from January 1, 2002 to April 1, 2013. The resulting data allowed us to compare the accordance between CNB and excision diagnoses of PTB patients and evaluate the accuracy of CNB in preoperative diagnosis.
METHODS: Data from 128 patients with PTB who had undergone preoperative CNB and breast surgery were retrospectively analyzed. We reviewed the medical history, clinical follow-up data, and CNB diagnostic data. A diagnostic test was used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of CNB in diagnosing benign, borderline, and malignant phyllodes tumors.
RESULTS: The accuracy of CNB for diagnosing PTB was 13.3% (17/128). Of the remaining patients, 98 (75.5% of the PTB patients) were diagnosed with fibroadenoma or fibroepithelial lesions. The sensitivity of CNB at diagnosing benign, borderline, and malignant phyllodes tumors were 4.9% (2/41), 4.2% (3/71), and 25.0% (4/16), respectively, whereas the corresponding specificity were 92.0%, 98.2%, and 100%, respectively. Some clinical features, such as large tumor size, rapid growth, or surgical history of fibroadenomas, were indicative of an increased possibility of PTB.
CONCLUSIONS: CNB provides a pathological basis for the preoperative diagnosis of PTB, but it has a poor accuracy and offers limited guidance for surgical decisions. Considering CNB along with multiple histologic features may improve the ability to accurately diagnose PTB. An integrated assessment using CNBs in combination with clinical data and imaging features is suggested as a reliable strategy to assist PTB diagnosis.