[Preoperative breast imaging review: Interests and limits of specialized validation in oncology].

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of systematic radiological review by breast specialist radiologist of malignant breast lesion imaging on the therapeutic management of patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data collection was performed for patients with histopathologically proved breast cancer or suspicious breast lesion on imaging realized out of our institution. Patients underwent systematic mammary and axillary ultrasound, imaging review and if necessary complementary mammographic images. We analyzed the number of additional breast biopsies and axillary lymph node fine needle aspiration (FNA) with their histopathological results. We assessed their impact by comparing the final surgical treatment to the one planned before review.

RESULTS: Two hundred and seventeen patients were included, with a total of 230 BIRADS 0, 4, 5 or 6 breast lesions. Seventy-six additional breast core biopsies were realized, leading to diagnose 43 additional BIRADS 6 lesions (24 infiltrative carcinomas, 9 DCIS and 10 atypical lesions) in 30 patients (13.82%). Thirty-five additional lymph node FNA were realized with 12 metastatic nodes and 3 false negative samples. Imaging review lead to change surgical treatment in 59 patients (27.19%, P<0.01) with modification in breast surgery in 37 patients, axillary surgery in 8 patients and both sites surgery in 12 patients.

CONCLUSION: This study shows an impact of systematic radiological review by breast specialist radiologist in therapeutic management of patients treated for malignant breast lesion.