Annals of surgical oncology
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Nonpalpable breast lesions are being detected with increasing frequency with the advent of improved mammographic techniques. Although only 20-30% of these lesions are malignant, definitive diagnosis has usually required a needle-localization excisional biopsy, which is costly and increases the psychological stress on the patient. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the sensitivity of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy of nonpalpable breast masses and the incidence of axillary nodal metastases in these subclinical lesions. ⋯ These results indicate that ultrasound-guided FNA cytologic analysis is an accurate diagnostic technique even in small (< 1 cm), mammographically detected breast masses. In addition, the incidence of axillary nodal metastases indicates that an axillary lymph node dissection should be performed in invasive lesions, even those < 1 cm in diameter.