Breast screening is performed with methods such as Ultrasound, Mammography, MRI, Pet, and it is tried to understand whether there is a suspicious situation or problem. If there is a suspicion of cancer, cell and tissue samples are taken from the detected formation and microscopic examination is used to make a definitive diagnosis.

Breast biopsy is the process of taking a tissue sample from a suspicious part of the breast and examining it by pathologists using microscopic methods.

A biopsy is necessary to decide whether or not to operate on the suspicious area and the type and extent of the operation.

Breast cancer is diagnosed by physical examination, imaging methods and biopsy. The rate of correct diagnosis increases in patients in whom these three methods are applied together. Histopathologic examination is particularly important in making the diagnosis of cancer. Therefore, many different methods have been described:

Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB): It is an easy and inexpensive method. It is not the tissue itself that is taken into the needle, but cells detached from the tissue. It only allows a (cytological) examination of these cells and can tell whether the cells sampled are benign or malignant. If the examining cytopathologists are experienced in breast biopsies, the accuracy rate of FNAB increases.

Thick Needle (core) Biopsy: It is done with a needle with a larger diameter. This procedure is performed after local anesthesia is applied to the breast skin. Since a tissue sample can be taken, it provides more precise information about the tumor.

Stereotactic Biopsy: It is a biopsy of certain lesions (often microcalcifications) in the breast tissue that are not palpable but are detected mammographically with a special wire or needle.

Incisional Biopsy: It is an open surgical biopsy performed by removing a piece of the suspicious mass in the breast tissue. While it was common in the past, today it has been abandoned except in some exceptional cases.

Excisional Biopsy: An open surgical biopsy in which the entire mass in the breast tissue is removed. Due to the development of needle biopsy techniques, it is not a preferred biopsy method today.