Aim: Our aim was to evaluate the performance of combination of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and core biopsy (CB) as a method for the diagnosis of small solid renal tumors.
Patients and methods: Ninety patients with a radiologically detected small solid renal tumor (≤ 4 cm) underwent a biopsy. Patient underwent FNA (FNA group, n=32) or CB (CB group, n=30) or combination of both FNA and CB (combination group, n=28). The diagnostic rate and accuracy of both techniques were assessed.
Results: The diagnostic rate of the combination group (92.9%) was superior to that of the FNA group (62.5%) and CB group (76.7%) (p=0.006, and p=0.147, respectively). In the combination group, 11 CBs were diagnostic with 13 nondiagnostic FNAs, while 4 FNAs were diagnostic with 6 nondiagnostic CBs. For tumors ≤ 2 cm, the combination of FNA and CB significantly increased the diagnostic rate, compared with FNA alone (p=0.033) and CB alone (p=0.044). The accuracy for FNA, CB and the combination of FNA and CB was 88%, 100% and 100%, respectively.
Conclusion: The combination of FNA and CB increased the diagnostic rate of renal biopsy for the small solid renal tumors.