[Diagnostic intervention in breast disease]

Imaging-guided percutaneous biopsy techniques have been developed to diagnose the lesions detected in breast cancer screening programs based on mammography. Although traditional fine-needle aspiration cytology continues to be indicated in some cases, in many others it has been supplanted by more modern techniques like core biopsy or vacuum-assisted biopsy guided by ultrasonography, stereotaxy, or magnetic resonance imaging. These highly reliable techniques have minimized the need for surgical biopsy. Radiologists play a key role in the histological diagnosis of breast cancer in the early stages of disease and in the evaluation of its local and regional extension through magnetic resonance imaging and sentinel node biopsy.