Vacuum assisted core biopsy allows the sampling of a large volume of breast tissue with a single pass of the biopsy needle. Using a fine needle for cytology retrieves only a few samples of cells, and core needle biopsy requires multiple passes of the needle into the area of a lesion to acquire a smaller volume of tissue than that obtained with the vacuum assist.
The reasons for preferring a vacuum assisted biopsy are then: fewer errors in sampling of the lesion, the capability to remove some lesions in the range of 1 cm. , patient comfort, ease of envisioning the needle location with respect to the lesion of interest, and volume of biopsy in addition to the potential to mark the site with microclips.
The disadvantage is mainly one of cost, compared to fine needle or core biopsy. But there is a significant cost saving when compared to surgical biopsy with all the above techniques.
Scar tissue is less as well, with the needle biopsy technique.
The American Society of Breast Surgeons and a number of other breast organizations consider the image guided, vacuum assisted biopsy to be the most cost effective method of sampling breast lesions while minimizing the error of undersampling the lesion of interest.