Abstract
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.
Key words
Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology liver lesions - hepatocellular carcinoma - liver metastases
- track metastases
