Peritoneoscopy in the management of breast cancer

Peritoneoscopy has been recommended by the Combined Breast Clinic at the Provincial Hospital, Port Elizabeth, since 1975, mainly to confirm or exclude metastatic involvement of the liver. Experience with 27 procedures is reviewed. Peritoneoscopy is shown to be a useful aid in the staging and management of selected cases of breast cancer. Positive findings, confirmed by histological examination, were recorded for 5 patients. Negative findings in 22 patients were equally helpful, and were found to be reliable, in that none of these patients had evidence of liver involvement during the follow-up period, while in 5 patients there was evidence of metastases elsewhere.