An audit of benign biopsies performed in patients assessed by the Leeds/Wakefield Breast Screening Unit

This audit was performed in order to clarify any relationship between an increase in benign biopsies and use of the B3 core biopsy category. Women who had been screened between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2000 by Leeds/Wakefield Breast Screening Service and who had undergone a surgical biopsy for a lesion subsequently proving benign were identified and all pre-operative investigations reviewed. Thirty-six women had undergone a surgical excision biopsy for a benign lesion and 22 of these (61%) had had a B3 biopsy categorisation. Twelve of these reflected a pathological suggestion of radial scar but there were 10 others and a wide variety of lesions were represented. Two papillary lesions, two fibro-epithelial lesions, two difficult intraductal epithelial proliferations and two biopsies containing pools of stromal mucin were found, as was one case of atypical lobular hyperplasia and one unusual vascular lesion.

We suggest there may be a relationship between the histological uncertainty, which may arise as a consequence of the limited sampling of core biopsy and a rise in the number of benign biopsies performed. It is possible that newer vacuum assisted techniques such as the mammotome may prove helpful in avoiding the need for open biopsy in some of these patients.