Original studyUltrasonography-Guided Breast-Conserving Surgery Is Superior to Palpation-Guided Surgery for Palpable Breast Cancer

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of ultrasonography (US)-guided excision of palpable breast cancer and to compare it with the standard palpation-guided breast-conserving surgery (BCS).MethodsFor this purpose, 335 women with palpable breast cancer who underwent BCS were retrospectively studied. The positive surgical margins and re-excision rates were investigated.ResultsOf the total cohort, 137 patients were treated with palpation-guided BCS and 198 underwent US-guided tumor excision. The tumor and patient characteristics were similar in both groups. Patient age, postmenopausal status, tumor size, histological grade, intraductal tumor component, lobular histology, and palpation-guided tumor excision were associated with increased risk of positive margins. The shave margins were re-excised at the time of original operation more often by palpation-guided localization (28.5%) than by the US-guided procedure (11.1%) (P < .0001). A surgeon was able to correctly identify the “problematic” margin in 81.1% of cases via intraoperative US and in only 17.9% via palpation (P < .0001). The re-excision rate during a second operation was significantly reduced by US-guided tumorectomy (P = .004). Of 198 patients in the US-guided group, 23 (11.6%) underwent a second operation, as did 33 of 137 patients in the palpation group (24.1%). The sensitivity and specificity of US-guided excisions were 52.7% and 97.5%, respectively, whereas the sensitivity and the specificity of palpation-guided tumor excisions were 15.5% and 65.9%, respectively.ConclusionUS-guided BCS is superior to palpation-guided excision in predicting the closest margins, obtaining clear surgical margins, and reducing re-operations.