CHENNAI: A vacuum-assisted breast biopsy and excision technology that has been recently commissioned at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre has helped remove benign breast tumours without any surgery in a day care procedure. It has also greatly improved accurate diagnosis for cancer compared to the widely used traditional core needle biopsy says Professor Dr Bhawna, who specialises in breast cancer radiology.
Any breast lump causes anxiety, since it raises the fear of cancer. However, they may be cancerous or non-cancerous. It is important to evaluate breast lumps early so that, if they are due to cancer, treatment is started and if they are benign, there is no need to worry.
So far, surgery was the only option for removal of the breast lump. With advanced technologies like Vacuum-Assisted Excision (VAE), non-surgical removal of benign breast lumps like fibroadenomas is possible without the need for hospital admission or large surgical scars. In most of the places, core needle biopsy is the main way of sampling breast lumps or suspicious calcifications which sometimes fail to give adequate samples especially in case of suspicious calcifications. Vacuum-Assisted Breast Biopsy (VABB) allows better sampling, entire focus of suspicious calcifications is removed helping efficient histopathology anyalysis.
VABB and VAE have been recently commissioned at the Department of Radiology at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre. Dr Bhawna, Professor of Radiology, who specialises in breast imaging says, “Now, a more accurate diagnosis is possible with VABB and benign breast lumps — fibroadenomas can be removed entirely without the need for surgery with VAE. Both VABB and VAE are cheaper as hospital admission is not needed and provide better cosmetic results for women.”
The use of VABB is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and NICE (UK) for the complete removal of fibroadenoma. Abroad, VABB and VAE are widely used and have replaced surgical excision for certain breast lumps, said Dr Bhawna.