Abstract
Rapid diagnoses were made on 510 breast lumps by three methods in sequence and the results compared with those obtained by paraffin histology.Naked-eye examination of the excised lumps correctly distinguished between benign and malignant tumours in 95.1% of cases with 23 (4.5%) false negative and two (0.4%) false positive results.Rapid imprint cytodiagnosis was correct in 96.9% of the 391 lumps imprinted with 12 (3.1%) false negatives and no false positive results. Frozen sections gave the correct diagnosis in 99.4% of the 510 cases with three (0.6%) false negative and no false positive results. The use of cytology in the diagnosis of breast tumours is discussed.