Title: THE ROLE OF RADIOGRAPHY GUIDED NON-PALPABLE BREAST LESION MARKING ON THE DIAGNOSIS OF EARLY BREAST CANCER AND PROLIFERATIVE DISEASES (A Four-Year Retrospective Analysis)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine the rate of proliferative and malignant breast lesions in patients who underwent excisional biopsy. METHODS: Non-palpable benign breast lesions in 112 female patients that were diagnosed by mammography and ultrasonography (USG) were analysed using the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) radiological classification system. Patients with a BI-RADS score of 3–5 for mammograms and breast mass excised later were compared according to radiological and pathologic findings. RESULTS: : For non-palpable breast lesions, a BI-RADS type 4 radiological image was most frequently obtained (62.5%, 70 cases). Most lesions (52.7%, n=59) were benign, 36.6% (n=41) were proliferative and 10.7% (n=12) were malignant. The most frequently seen benign lesion was either a simple cystic disease or a proliferative disease that was classified with or without atypia. A few patients (16.1%, n=18) had proliferative lesions with atypical ductal hyperplasia and 20.5% (n=23) of the patients had proliferative lesions without atypia; no significant difference in proliferative lesions was observed between these two groups (p=.466). Six patients were diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and six patients were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ. In patients with atypical ductal hyperplasia, atypical columnar epithelial cell changes (61.1%) were more common than without atypia (43.5%), but these values were not significantly different. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The marking of non-palpable breast lesions followed by excisional biopsy is a valuable method for detecting and staging suspicious lesions. Additionally, the BI-RADS scoring system is a reliable method for ruling out malignancy in non-palpable breast lesions during follow-up.

Keywords

• breast
• marking
• biopsy
• non-palpable