The results of a structured diagnostic pathway designed to minimise the chance of breast cancer misdiagnosis

AimTo describe results from a structured clinic pathway designed to minimise inaccuracies and diagnostic delays in the diagnosis of breast cancer.MethodsPatients referred to our breast clinic undergo clinical, imaging and biopsy assessment according to a standard protocol. Over 4 years, patients who were discharged with a benign diagnosis and later found to have breast cancer were reviewed.ResultsA total of 4366 new referrals were seen in the symptomatic breast clinic and 571 (13%) new cancers were diagnosed. Fourteen of the new cancer patients had been seen in the clinic previously (range 7–48 months) and discharged with a benign diagnosis. None of these tumours appeared to result from misdiagnosis of a lesion previously assessed to be benign. The rate of development of cancer in the cohort discharged with a benign diagnosis was closely similar to that in the normal United Kingdom population.ConclusionsA structured breast clinic pathway can produce a rate of diagnostic accuracy closely approaching 100%.