Nipple aspirate fluid and its use for the early detection of breast cancer

Natasha Jiwa; Ahmed Ezzat; Josephine Holt; Dhuleep S Wijayatilake; Zoltan Takats; Daniel Richard Leff

doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2022.103625

Nipple aspirate fluid and its use for the early detection of breast cancer

Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2022 Apr 18:77:103625. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2022.103625. eCollection 2022 May.

Authors

Natasha Jiwa¹, Ahmed Ezzat¹, Josephine Holt², Dhuleep S Wijayatilake³, Zoltan Takats⁴, Daniel Richard Leff¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery and Cancer, St Marys Hospital, Praed Street, London, W2 1NY, UK.
² Royal Free NHS Trust, London, NW3 2QG, UK.
³ Queens Hospital, Romford, Essex, RM7 0AG, UK.
⁴ Imperial College London, South Kensington, Campus Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.

Abstract

Nipple aspirate fluid is the physiological biofluid lining ductal epithelial cells. Historically, cytology of nipple fluid has been the gold standard diagnostic method for assessment of ductal fluid in patients with symptomatic nipple discharge. The role of biomarker discovery in nipple aspirate fluid for assessment of asymptomatic and high-risk patients is highly attractive but evaluation to date is limited by poor diagnostic accuracy. However, the emergence of new technologies capable of identifying metabolites that have been previously thought unidentifiable within such small volumes of fluid, has enabled testing of nipple biofluid to be re-examined. This review evaluates the use of new technologies to evaluate the components of nipple fluid and their potential to serve as biomarkers in screening.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Breast cancer; Early detection; Mass spectrometry; Metabolomics; Nipple aspirate fluid.

Publication types

Review