Staging Procedures in Primary Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background: In consideration of increasing incidence by introduction of screening mammography, the prevalence of distant metastases and necessity of staging procedures in early breast cancer should be proved. Patients and Methods: A retrospective review was undertaken of 466 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer in the period from 2003 to 2006. Results: Distant metastases were found in 22 (4.8%) patients at the time of primary diagnosis of breast cancer. None of these patients had a tumour ≤1 cm and the percentage of metastatic disease increased with local extension (pT1 1.4% ; pT2 7.9% ; pT3 14.3% ; pT4 23.1% ; p<0.001) and nodal status (pN0 1.7% ; pN1 3.8% ; pN2 21.7% ; pN3 17.6% ; p<0.001) Conclusion: Indication for bone scan, liver ultrasound and chest x-ray should be limited to patients with tumours >2 cm, or tumours >1 cm with lymph node involvement (N1-3).