[Evaluations of surgically removed breast tumors from the pathologist's viewpoint, with special emphasis on benign...

The surgical management of malignant breast tumours has considerably changed in the last decade, and breast conservation is often favoured over mastectomy. As a consequence of screening and use of preoperative diagnostic tools some unequivocal lesions are removed for diagnostic purposes. In the present study, the author addressed some of the quality control issues of breast operations that pathologists could monitor. Breast specimens from patients operated on in 1999 formed the basis of this work. The benign to malignant ratio of the 187 assessed cases (0.6) was favourable, and the diagnostic intraoperative frozen section rate (25%) also showed a favourable decrease when compared with previous years. The weight of breast tissue (mean: 31.9 grams) removed during surgery for benign conditions was high. Possibilities for (further) decreasing the three monitored parameters are highlighted. It seems that the parameter than can be improved the most is the mass of benign breast tissue removed for diagnostic purposes. This could be achieved with a better segregation between diagnostic and therapeutic indications of operations. As benign tissue is generally removed from patients who are young, cosmetic results should particularly be taken into consideration in this group.