Thermal damage of the specimen during breast biopsy with the use of the Breast Lesion Excision System: does it affect diagnosis?

Background Stereotactic vacuum assisted breast biopsy (VABB) procedures remain of key importance in the diagnostic evaluation of suspicious non-palpable mammographic lesions. The Breast Lesion Excision System® (BLES) is an image-guided percutaneous biopsy method that utilizes radiofrequency (RF) in order to retrieve an intact-tissue biopsy specimen. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of RF application on the tissue specimen and the possible interference with the histopathologic results.