Use of Core-Needle Biopsy for the Diagnosis of Malignant Lymphomas in Clinical Practice.

Excisional biopsy (EB) is considered the gold standard for lymphoma diagnosis. Although recent advances in interventional radiology enable sampling with core-needle biopsy (CNB), only few studies evaluated the utility of CNB compared to that of EB. We analyzed patients with lymphoma who had a diagnostic biopsy at the National Cancer Center Hospital during 2002-2017. We investigated the clinical and pathological characteristics of CNB in 2017. The proportion of CNB utility in total biopsy procedures had increased from 11 to 48% during the 15 years. In 2017, CNB was opted more frequently than EB for a biopsy of superficial, abdominal, or anterior mediastinal lesions. Only one out of 72 patients who had CNB required re-biopsy with EB because of insufficiency. The incidence of complications was comparable between CNB and EB: 2 (4%) cases of minor bleeding with CNB and 1 (8%) case of minor bleeding with EB. The median time from the first visit to biopsy was significantly shorter with CNB (5.5 days) than with EB (15 days). There is an increasing trend in the utility of CNB. CNB is a less invasive method with shorter time to biopsy and can be considered an alternative to EB.

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© 2021 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.