Efficacy and patient satisfaction of breast conserving therapy for central breast cancer by the B technique.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the oncologic safety and cosmetic results after breast cancer surgery for central breast cancer by the B technique.

METHODS

Seventy women with operable breast cancer located in the central portion of the breast that had received resection surgery with the B technique were recruited. The primary outcome was the oncological safety, quantified as rate of positive resection margins and the cosmetic outcome evaluated by postsurgical self-assessment of the cosmetic outcome via questionnaire. The median follow-up period was 61.4 months (range 7.9-142.6 months).

RESULTS

With one exception all patients had T1-2 tumors less than 5 cm in diameter. Most patients had invasive ductal breast cancers (57.1 %), followed by ductal carcinoma-in situ (27.1 %) and invasive lobular breast cancers (8.6 %). The incidence of positive resection margins was 17.1 %. No local tumor recurrence occurred during follow-up; one patient had distant metastases. In total, 80 % of the patients reported that the cosmetic results met or exceeded their expectations.

CONCLUSIONS

The B technique is a safe breast conservation surgery for the excision of tumors located in the central portion of the breast and yields a high rate of satisfactory cosmetic results.