Journal Club - Soft tissue sarcoma biopsy: A safe and well-tolerated technique

Soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs) are a heterogenous group of malignant tumors with varying radiological and histopathological features that can make an accurate diagnosis and lesion grading challenging. It is rare with the average GP seeing only one of these lesions in their career.

The present 5-year retrospective study that is published in the Indian Journal of Musculoskeletal Radiology published by (Scientific Scholar) aimed to assess the diagnostic yield, accuracy, and complication rate of the US-guided core-needle biopsy technique for suspected soft-tissue sarcomas.

Diagnostic yield was recorded as positive for a sample that allowed differentiation of benign and malignant lesions. Diagnostic accuracy was defined as the correlation between biopsy and surgical specimen when excision was performed. Immediate and late complications were documented. The patient's procedural experience was recorded by a departmental questionnaire.

The results revealed that the diagnostic yield was positive in 96.5% with no immediate, short- or long-term complications. Hence, it was concluded that the described soft-tissue mass US-guided percutaneous core-needle biopsy technique demonstrated a high diagnostic yield and accuracy with a low complication rate.

Ref: Armstrong T, Pass B, Gupta H, Colville J, Robinson P. Soft-tissue sarcoma biopsy: A safe and well-tolerated technique with a high diagnostic yield – A 5-year review of more than 800 cases. Indian J Musculoskelet Radiol 2022;4:87-93.