Image-guided percutaneous breast biopsies

Diagnosis of breast cancer at its earliest stage affords women the best prognosis. The role of the breast imager has evolved from cancer screening and detection to now include diagnosis and management with the widespread adoption of image-guided core biopsy. This article will briefly discuss the current image-guided biopsy techniques for the diagnosis of suspicious breast findings, specifically, stereotactic, ultrasound and MR-guided, and the evidence in the literature emphasizing proven efficacy for each. For those lesions which cannot undergo percutaneous biopsy, this report will also discuss the use of marker placement at the time of wire localization and excision for ensuring and verifying biopsy of the appropriate lesion.