Role of FNAC in Hepatic lesions: Risk of track metastases

BACKGROUND: Liver is one of the most common site of metastases in patients with malignancy and the evaluation of space occupying lesions (SOL) of liver in patients with malignancy is important. Its important to differentiate benign from malignant to take necessary decisions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have performed a retrospective analysis of liver SOLs for which fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was done in the year 2011. Risks and benefits associated with FNAC were evaluated. RESULTS: We analyzed 755 patients who underwent FNAC of which 524 patients had secondary metastases to liver, 148 patients had primary hepatocellular carcinoma, 14 cases were benign neoplasms and 53 were nonneoplastic conditions. Histological correlation with FNAC was available in 112 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were 93%, 90.9%, 98.9%, 58.8%, and 92.8%, respectively. Though there were no incidence of bleeding, two patients developed track metastases following FNAC. One was a case of Hepatocellular carcinoma and the other a case of metastatic breast cancer. CONCLUSION: FNAC was very much useful in our setup where most of the patients could not afford for Computer tomography (CT) scan and was useful in counseling them especially in patients with advanced malignancy where no active cancer directed therapy is required.