Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy of Breast Carcinoma in Pregnancy and Lactation

Abstract

The main cytologic features that differentiate breast carcinoma from benign conditions during pregnancy and lactation are crowding and overlapping of nuclei, dyscohesion and enlarged, pleomorphic nuclei with irregular nuclear membranes, coarse nuclear chromatin and mitoses. Pregnancy-related hyperplastic changes with atypia can potentially result in a false positive diagnosis of carcinoma.