Therapeutic mammaplasties: full local control of breast cancer in one surgical stage with frozen section.

AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic mammoplasty with frozen section in achieving negative surgical margins in a single-stage surgery for breast cancer.

METHODS

Fifty patients affected by early stage breast cancer treated by therapeutic mammaplasties were retrospectively reviewed in this study. Fifty-two therapeutic mammaplasties were accomplished. After resection the specimen was sent to pathologist for examination with frozen section. Tumour positive margins were defined as presence of cancerous cells at ≤ 2 mm from the edge of the specimen. In case of positive margins a second large re-excision was accomplished intra-operatively. All patients were followed every 4 months for the first 2 years and twice a year subsequently.

RESULTS

Fifty-two procedures were evaluated (median follow-up of 72.6 months). The overall survival rate was 98% we had a single case of local recurrent disease (1.9%) that progressed to metastatic disease and patient's death. Frozen section as a diagnostic tool for identification of positive margins has been tested. In conclusion we report a sensitivity of 0.83 and a specificity of 0.93; the predictive positive value was 0.62 and the negative predictive value was 0.97, for a final accuracy of 0.94.

CONCLUSION

Frozen section coupled to oncoplastic resections allows a proper control of local disease and can minimize any second surgical look for margins revision.