Guidelines for cytology procedures and reporting on fine needle aspirates of the breast

In 1989, a working party of the Royal College of Pathologists prepared guidelines for histopathologists concerned with the reporting of biopsies from patients participating in the National Breast Cancer Screening Programme. The guidelines were in the form of two documents, Guidelines for Pathologists’ and Pathology Reporting in Breast Cancer Screenin?. In both these documents fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was mentioned only briefly, as it was thought that the technique was not widely used. Experience has shown that many more centres than originally envisaged include FNAC as part of the routine work up of patients presenting with a breast lesion, in view of the usefulness of the test for preoperative diagnosis and subsequent management of the patient. Consequently, in 1992 the working party felt it necessary to produce an additional set of guidelines for pathologists on the collection and interpretation of fine needle aspirates of breast lesions. The document prepared by the working party in 1992 was entitled Guidelines for Cytology Procedures and Reporting in Breast Cancer Screening3, and was revised in 1993. Its contents are summarized in this paper.