Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) biopsy is defined as using a fine needle to remove a sample of cells from a suspicious mass for diagnostic analysis under a microscope.  Since the development of this technique in the 1930s, it has proven to be a cost effective, safe, and patient friendly technique for biopsy compared to its surgical alternative. 

Similar to getting blood drawn, FNA involves inserting a thin needle into suspicious lumps or tissues to collect cells for analysis and diagnosis of malignancy or infection.  The procedure is typically outpatient and can be done within a matter of minutes.  It requires no anesthesia and is less traumatic and expensive for the patient than undergoing surgical biopsy.  The best part is that depending on the experience of the pathologists, results can be back to the patient within 30 minutes of the sample extraction.  The most common sites for FNA are the thyroid, breast, head and neck, axillary, cervical and groin lymph nodes, and masses in extremities.  When needed, radiologists assist in guiding the needle for collection of material from masses deep inside the body and are therefore consulted for imaging and diagnosis.    

Cytopathologists at the University of Utah have been working to increase the utility of FNA over the past 10 years.  Due to the technicality and difficulty of interpretation, having an experienced team is a must.  The procedure requires professionals who can perform the aspiration and interpret the results reliably and accurately.  As a major academic cancer center that uses this technique, cytopathologists at the University remain at the forefront of the technology and are ever improving their service.  FNA also gives these cytopathologists the unique opportunity to work directly with patients, taking an active role in their diagnosis and eventual management. 

Because of the experience and expertise required for optimal results, FNA has been slow to catch in the United States, despite its diagnostic accuracy being in the range of 90%-95%.  The eventual hope is that, when combined with other technologies, the information gathered from FNA will be used to predict what treatments are most effective against specific types of cancers as well as give insight into why some patients respond to various therapies better than others, giving an entirely new spin on using molecular diagnostics in cancer diagnosis.