Sensitivity of ultrasonography in predicting benign and malignant masses of breast lump at a tertiary care hospital with its cytological and histological correlation

Introduction: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most-common invasive cancer in women. It affects 1 in 7 (14%) of women worldwide. Breast cancer comprises 22.9% of invasive cancers in women and 16% of all female cancers the number of cases worldwide has significantly increased since the 1970s, a phenomenon partly attributed to the modern lifestyles. Breast cancer is strongly related to age with only 5% of all breast cancers occurring in women under 40 years old. Breast cancer screening is the medical screening of asymptomatic, apparently healthy women for breast cancer in an attempt to achieve an earlier diagnosis. The assumption is that early detection will improve outcomes. A number of screening tests have been employed, including clinical and self-breast exams, mammography, genetic screening, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging. Supplemental screening ultrasound has the potential to depict early, node-negative breast cancers not seen on mammography, and its performance is improved, if anything, in dense parenchyma. Methods that improve detection of small, node-negative cancers should further reduce mortality when performed in addition to screening mammography. Materials and Method: This is a retrospective study spanning over a period of 1 year including females in the age of 15 – 80 years presenting with palpable breast lumps. All the females were examined clinically, radiologically with aid of ultrasonography, followed by cytopathological examination and following the excision of mass correlation with histopathological diagnosis. A concordance was determined between the radiological, cytopathological and histopathological diagnosis to find the utility of ultrasonography in detecting lesions. Observation: In this study we found that using an investigation tool that is ultrasonography the sensitivity of detecting a lesion correctly as benign or malignant lesions, which is confirmed with histopathology and preliminary on cytopathology is 78.48%. Conclusion: Breast cancer is a serious health hazard to millions of females and requires early detection for early diagnosis and treatment. Triple test in itself is an excellent diagnostic approach. However, in a setting due to lack of mammography a subjunctive tool like ultrasonography can help in assisting the diagnosis of breast lesions.