Abstract
Introduction
Tissue diagnosis is essential to direct the definitive management of a suspected soft tissue or bone sarcoma tissue. Knowledge of both the diagnostic yield and accuracy of core needle biopsies is therefore important to give the investigating team information on the likelihood of their initial investigations achieving a diagnosis.
Methods
This is a retrospective study of patients referred to a specialist orthopaedic centre for investigation of a suspected soft tissue or bone sarcoma. Details of all core needle biopsies performed in a 13-month period were obtained from the hospital database. We defined a diagnostic biopsy as either a specific tissue diagnosis or a biopsy that decided the definitive management of the patient, specifically if malignancy was excluded and no further intervention was required, to calculate the diagnostic yield. Diagnostic accuracy was established by comparing histological diagnosis at biopsy to that at final excision.
Results
The overall diagnostic yield of the biopsies performed was 85% (125 of 148 biopsies) and the diagnostic accuracy was 93% (77 of 83). The diagnostic yield of soft tissue lesions was 93% (79 of 85) and accuracy 98%. For bone lesions the diagnostic yield was 73% (46 of 73) and accuracy was 85%.
Discussion
Knowing the diagnostic yield and accuracy of biopsies performed allows the investigating team to give patients and colleagues a figure detailing the likely success of a soft tissue or bone biopsy in being diagnostic. In addition this data provides the investigating team with information on specific biopsy types that are less likely to be diagnostic, such as bone lesions requiring CT guidance. These may benefit from another biopsy method to avoid delay in diagnosis and facilitate timely management.
