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The amount of stainable Iron in the bone marrow is frequently used as a means of assessing Iron stores. In our study marrow Iron assessed in needle biopsy sections and simultaneously obtained aspirated smears from 75 patients. Significantly different amounts of stainable Iron were observed in needle biopsy and aspirated smears in 53.3% of the specimen. The usual difference consisted of significantly less stainable Iron in needle biopsy sections as compared to the aspirated smears (49.3%). In according to this study, in comparison of needle biopsy section to aspirated smears (As a golden test), sensitivity and specificity were 88 and 64 percent, respectively. Also, positive and negative predictive values were 56.5 and 91%, respectively. It can be appreciated that marrow assessment of Iron content may be associated with distinct differences between the needle biopsy specimens, and the aspirated smears, and could lead to diagnostic error, although, with some limitations and cautions biopsy specimen can be used for Iron assessment.

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The cancer of breast is the most common malignancy among women and after cancer of the lung is the second cause of death in females. Thus, early diagnosis and treatment can have a effect significant in prognosis and clinical course of disease. One of the numerous controversial tissues to the clinical management of breast cancers is the role of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) to assess the accuracy and determine the role of FNA in breast cancer diagnosis, we performed both FNA and excisional biopsy in 86 unselected patients with palpable breast masses and correlated the cytologic and histopathologic findings. In our study, FNA had no false-negative and no false-positive results, and the sensitivity of diagnosis of malignant tumors was 88.8%, the specificity of diagnosis of benign lesions was 96.2% and the predictive values were 100%, respectively. On the basis of above study, breast FNA may add a measure of confidence in the diagnosis of benign lesions, provides a safeguard for preventing misdiagnosis of malignant lesion, and might expedite and reduce the cost of managing breast cancer. Also, breast FNA like any diagnostic method depends to individual techniques and continual practice.

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Background and Objective: Dissection of the axillary lymph nodes is considered as one of the common measures in management of breast cancer. Edema and limitation in hand movement are accompanied with dissection of axillary lymph nodes. Sentinel lymph node biopsy can be used to evaluate axillary metastasis. This study was carried out to evaluate the diagnostic value of sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with breast cancer. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was performed on 30 selected patients with breast cancer less than 5 cm without any involvement of axillary lymph nodes in Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad, North-East of Iran during 2009 -10. Initially, the lymphoscintigraphy was performed. Subsequently, prior, to the surgery, the blue dye as a marker was injected for detecting sentinel lymph node and with the use of probe gamma counter and observing blue color on lymph nodes, the sentinel node was determined and separated. Finally, axillary dissection was performed for removing the lymph nodes of I and II level in all patients. Results: Among 30 patients who were evaluated for sentinel lymph nodes and axillary dissection, false negative were observed only in two cases (6.6 %). The sensitivity rate was determined to be 84.6%. Conclusion: Considering the high success rate of detection of sentinel lymph node and limited false negative cases, sentinel lymph node biopsy is recommended in cases of breast cancer without axillary involvement.