[Suppose a mammary carcinoma is absent from the surgical specimen]

In three women aged 53, 51, and 42 respectively, who were treated by breast-conserving surgery for mammary carcinoma, the cancer was not found in the surgical specimen. For both patient and treating physician it is rather worrying when there is no good explanation for the fact that a histologically proven breast cancer cannot be detected in the surgical specimen without neoadjuvant therapy having been given. It is important to revise the needle biopsies, to exclude mix up of patient materials, to totally include the resected specimen in the pathological examination and to perform addition imaging of the remaining breast, preferably with MRI. An explanation may be that biopsy has removed such an amount of tumour tissue that the remains are not found. If no flaws are apparent, adjuvant radiotherapy and further adjuvant therapy on indication suffices.