[Systematic second opinion review of outside imaging in breast cancer diagnosis: An added value]

The systematic second opinion review in cancer centers after breast cancer detection is currently under development. The purposes were the evaluation of review's consequences, in particularly of the axillary staging and the evolution of the delays.

A retrospective study was conducted on patients who consulted a clinician at Cancer Center of Lorraine in Nancy from January 1st, 2016 to December 31th, 2016. We analyzed from their medical charts: the outside exams, the initial therapeutic plan, the second opinion review, the additional exams, the multidisciplinary consultation conclusions, the first treatment, the multidisciplinary consultation after surgery.

In all, 251 patients were analyzed. Second opinion review discrepancies were seen in 72.5%. As a result, 43.4% of all patients had new breast-axillary biopsies. New malignancies lesions were identified in 19.9% of patients. Modifications in therapeutic plan were recommended in 19.9% of patients (including patients with and without new malignancies lesions diagnosed). Before a second opinion review, 9.8% of axillary ultrasound lead to a positive fine-needle biopsy. The additional exams identified 9.6% additional lesions. After a positive sentinel lymph node excision biopsy, the multidisciplinary consultation recommended a revision surgery of axillary lymph node dissection for 27% of patients with axillary ultrasound performed in our cancer center, and for 70% of patients without ultrasound (P=0.023).

The systematic second opinion at cancer center allows the detection of new malignancies lesions and significant modifications in the therapeutic plan. A systematic evaluation of axillary ultrasound in cancer center could be considered.