Needle biopsies safer and just about as good at diagnosing breast cancer

The LATimes has an interesting story: Needle biopsies safer and just about as good at diagnosing breast cancer, say authors of mammogram advice:

The federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, apparently undaunted by the controversy it kicked up last month over mammograms, has waded back into the breast-cancer thicket with new advice on how best to distinguish benign breast lumps from possible malignancies. 

In a report released today, the arm of the Health and Human Services Department that is charged with comparing the effectiveness of competing medical interventions said that core-needle biopsies are just as good as the method long considered the "gold standard" of evaluating suspicious breast lesions: open surgical removal.

...

In addition to being roughly as accurate and less risky, core-needle biopsy is less costly than surgical removal and "generally is preferred by patients." And because about one in 10 women who have suspicious lumps in their breast biopsied proves to have breast cancer, the less invasive, less costly core-needle biopsy seems the better choice in most cases, the group concluded.

Huh, interesting.  An increasing number of Aperio customers are using digital pathology as a way to capture and view core needle biopsies.