Preoperative fine needle aspiration from human breast cancer is a valuable sampling material for progesterone receptor and cytometric DNA analysis

In a breast cancer series (n = 54), preoperative fine needle aspiration (FNA) was compared with biopsy at primary surgery as a source of material for the determination of progesterone receptor (PgR) content by enzyme immuno assay. The respective results manifested a strong correlation (r(s) = 0.82). The fact that PgR content was usually higher in FNA samples than in the corresponding biopsy samples and the finding that 11% of the tumours were PgR positive in FNA but PgR negative in the corresponding biopsy samples suggest a greater proportion of malignant cells to be obtained with FNA than in surgical biopsy. In another breast cancer series (n = 50), corresponding comparisons for DNA flow cytometry showed concordance in ploidy status (diploid vs. non-diploid) in 84% of cases and a strong correlation in S-phase fraction values (r(s) = 0.70). At DNA image cytometry, concordant results (Auer I + II vs. Auer III + IV) were obtained in 87% of the cases. To sum up, FNA seems to be a useful sampling technique for PgR determination and DNA cytometry.