Fine needle aspiration of breast lesions is widely practised as a simple, non-invasive procedure in hospital and private practice settings. Although the procedure is liable to sampling error--especially when the lesion is very small and non-palpable and variations may occur during the interpretation by different cytopathologists--it is a useful and important means of providing pre-operative diagnosis for women with abnormalities of the breast detected either by palpation or by imaging. We review the current status of this procedure and experience at our hospital.