Diagnostic value of vacuum-assisted breast biopsy for breast carcinoma: a meta-analysis and systematic review

As mammography screening has its limitation in diagnosis in breast carcinoma, minimally invasive procedures offer a better option. We conducted a systematic review to establish the overall value of Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VAB) for the diagnosis of breast cancer. After a review and quality assessment of 21 studies, sensitivity, specificity and other measures of accuracy of VAB for evaluating breast lesions were pooled using random-effects models. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves were used to summarize overall accuracy. Underestimate rate of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) were also calculated. The summary estimates for VAB in diagnosis of breast carcinoma were as follows: sensitivity, 0.981 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.972–0.987); specificity, 0.999 (95% CI, 0.997–0.999); positive likelihood ratio (PLR), 93.84 (95% CI, 41.55–211.95); negative likelihood ratio, 0.05 (95% CI, 0.03–0.09); diagnostic odds ratio, 1891.7 (95% CI, 683.8–5233.4); underestimate rate of ADH and DCIS were 20.9% (95% CI, 0.177–0.245) and 11.2% (95% CI, 0.098–0.128), respectively. VAB is a highly sensitive and specific biopsy method for evaluating mammographically detected breast in women. To be on the safe side, the diagnosis of ADH in VAB warrants surgical excision.