Nonpalpable breast lesions discovered by mammography.

Specimen mammography has been used at our medical center since January 1976, for the purpose of localizing and confirming the removal of mammographically identified, nonpalpable breast lesions. Forty patients were studied between Jan 1, 1976 and MFay 31, 1979, and 11 of these were found to have carcinoma. Nine of this group had surgical procedures that included axillary lymph node excision and there were no patients with positive axillary nodes. Frozen-section diagnosis was used in 22 patients and found to correlate well with permanent section diagnosis, providing the frozen section was obtained from the most suspicious area of the specimen. Needle localization was used in 15 patients and found to be of definite value in assuring excision of the mammographic abnormality. Three patients had a persistent mammographic lesion after the procedure was done and each of these was successfully managed by repeated biopsy using specimen roentgenography with needle localization.