Related Experiment Videos
Experience with the advanced breast biopsy instrumentation system
V S Perelman1, N D Colapinto, S Lee
1Family Practice Teaching Unit, North York General Hospital, Toronto, Ont. Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto.
Objectives:
To report early experience with the advanced breast biopsy instrumentation (ABBI) system and to compare the results with those of other published studies.
Design:
A nonrandomized case series.
Setting:
An outpatient breast diagnostic centre at a large urban community hospital.
Patients:
Thirty-four women; 27 had suspicious calcifications, 2 had a nonpalpable mass and 5 had both.
Intervention:
The ABBI procedure to excise a breast lesion or obtain a representative sample for histologic examination.
Main Outcome Measures:
Success of the procedure with respect to diagnosis, sample quality, technical problems, margins of tumour free tissue and patient satisfaction.
Results:
Malignant tissue was diagnosed in 7 women (21%) and atypical ductal hyperplasia in 2 (6%). In all cancers, the obtained samples had malignant cells present at the margins or less than 1 mm away. Technical problems were encountered in 32% of cases. Manual extraction of the specimen was required in 21% of cases.
Conclusions:
The preliminary data correlate well with those of other published results. Although it is possible that a small number of cases and a relatively high proportion of technical difficulties may represent a normal learning curve, there is a definite need for improvement of some ABBI components. ABBI does not appear to provide adequate margins of uninvolved tissue in patients with cancer and thus should not be used with curative intent. ABBI provides excellent quality samples for pathological study and good patient satisfaction. There are not yet enough data for meaningful comparison of ABBI with stereotactic core biopsy and excisional biopsy with needle localization.