The role of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in the diagnosis of malignant tumors.

Cytopathology and histopathology play a key role in the process of diagnosing oncological diseases and premalignant conditions. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is one of the techniques used for obtaining biopsy of a wide variety of body tissues, causing patients minimal discomfort. Therefore, it is often considered to be the best strategy for investigating and diagnosing some precancerous or potential malignant lesions. Being successful as a means of confirming the clinical suspicion of metastatic recurrence in the cases of an already known cancer, the interest has further focused on the preliminary diagnosis of various types of benign or malignant tumors. In cases of inoperable tumors, this technique is useful for formulating the final diagnosis. FNA biopsy proved its effectiveness as a highly accurate, cost-effective, and safe technique, with potential high diagnostic yield. Immunohistochemistry, used as an additional tool to classical histopathological examination, remains a very practical and reliable technique that promises good results especially in determining the site of origin within metastatic disease.