Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. Interventional Diagnosis

Most ductal carcinomas in situ are clinically occult; therefore, proper techniques must be used for adequate diagnosis. Current guidelines recommend minimally invasive tissue sampling before surgical excisions of all breast malignancies. Regardless of the technique used, correctly performed biopsies that are geographically, dimensional and numerical representative are essential, and post-interventional markers can be placed at the site. Whenever possible, vacuum-assisted guided by mammography should be the first choice of biopsy for all nonpalpable lesions of the breast, especially for microcalcifications. Surgical excision is expected in most ductal carcinomas in situ; therefore, appropriate imaging-guided localization techniques must be deployed in the hope of aiding the surgeon to perform a free-margin cosmetically adequate procedure. No significant performance differences have been noticed by comparing wire localization to radio guided occult lesion localization or radioactive seed technique, while the choice of imaging guidance should consider the best visibility of the lesion or marker. In the current paper we review the main interventional procedures used for diagnosis in ductal carcinoma in situ, illustrated with images from the database of the Cluj-Napoca Institute of Oncology and Fundeni Clinical Institute.