Usefulness of cutting needle biopsy in recurrent and advanced staged head and neck malignancies in a palliative setting

Abstract

Cutting needle biopsy in the head and neck is a safe and minimal-invasive procedure that can be performed in local anaesthesia on an outpatient basis. In a palliative setting, it can be recommended as an attractive alternative to both fine needle aspiration and open biopsy. It represents a simple and fast device for obtaining a tissue diagnosis with high diagnostic yield and accuracy and low morbidity.

Sonography‐assisted cutting needle biopsy in the head and neck for the diagnosis of lymphoma: Can it replace lymph node extirpation?

“…From the oncologist's point of view, another advantage of CNB over surgical resection is to leave the lymph node in place, which enables the monitoring of therapeutic response 8. In a palliative setting, CNB decreases psychological exposure, shortens the time of hospitalization, and minimizes the risk for complications, like wound healing disturbances in pre‐irradiated tissue 30. Particularly in younger patients, reactive benign cervical lymphadenopathy is a common presentation with a lengthy list of differentials 5, 19, 31.…”

Ultrasound‐guided core‐needle biopsy: Is it effective in the diagnosis of suspected lymphomas presenting in the head and neck?

“…However, most lymphomas are diagnosed by immunostaining rather than architecture, so open biopsy is usually a backup rather than an initial approach for problematic diagnoses. Ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy may be also an effective method to establish recurrent or progressive disease in patients with a previously established diagnosis of lymphoma [9,10] and could be used in selected head and neck lesions [2].…”

Myoepithelioma of the Soft Palate: a Case Report Giving Special Attention to the Differential Diagnosis

“…In addition, Southam et al [10] and Yuan and Li [6] have developed a study that described the use of an 18-gauge needle to obtain specimens of head and neck nodes, concluding that this method is valuable for the pathologists' interpretation. Besides, there are some studies which have been compared CNB with other biopsy methods like fine-needle aspiration, cytology and conventional biopsy [4,11-13]. …”

“…Recently, some authors have reported high success rates concerning the use of CNB taking into account that this method provides adequate biopsy samples for an accurate histological diagnosis [8,13]. Therefore, this pilot study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of cutting needle biopsy in the diagnosis of solid oral lesions.…”