How do fine-needle aspiration and core needle biopsy differ in terms of tissue sample and diagnostic value?

• A. FNA yields tissue architecture; core yields cellular detail.
• B. FNA yields cells for cytology with minimal tissue architecture; core biopsy provides a tissue column for histology and architecture.
• C. FNA provides larger tissue samples than core.
• D. Core biopsy yields only cells.

Answer: (B)

The main difference is in what the needle collects and how it’s used for diagnosis. Fine-needle aspiration uses a very thin needle to pull out cells, so the material is mainly individual cells or small clusters suitable for cytology. It provides little preserved tissue architecture, which limits assessment of how cells are organized in the tissue or how they invade nearby structures.

Core needle biopsy uses a larger needle to extract a core of tissue, a short cylinder, which preserves tissue architecture. This intact sample lets you evaluate histology—how the cells and structures are arranged—along with invasiveness and other architectural features, and it often supports additional tests like immunohistochemistry or molecular studies. That’s why this option correctly highlights cytology for FNA versus preserved architecture and histology for a core biopsy.

The other statements are inconsistent with how these procedures work: FNA does not yield architectural tissue detail, and core biopsy does not yield only cells or larger samples from FNA.