Use of monoclonal antibodies to human breast-tumor-associated antigens in the diagnosis of fine-needle aspirates of breast nodules : results of a multicenter study

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology is being increasingly employed in conjunction with physical examination and mammography in the pre-surgical diagnosis of breast nodules. In the present study, we have submitted to multicenter validation an immunocytochemical test which employs monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to breast-tumor-associated antigens (BTAA) for the diagnosis of breast cancer. The results of this analysis, which has evaluated 846 FNAs, show that the immunological test has a sensitivity of 88.62%, a specificity of 97.9% and an accuracy of 92.4%. The predictive value of a positive and a negative finding were 98.4% and 85.57% respectively. Comparison between the cytological and immunocytochemical diagnosis displayed a higher sensitivity, accuracy and predictive value of a negative result with the latter method (p <0.01). Our findings clearly indicate that immunocytochemical methods can complement and improve the diagnostic accuracy of FNA cytology of breast nodules.