Hooked-wire-directed breast biopsy and overpenetrated mammography

Six hundred fifty-three biopsies were performed for clinically occult, mammographically detected breast abnormalities. One hundred forty-seven cancers (22.5%) were found. Eighty-nine of those cancers (60.5%) were noninvasive. None of the in situ lesions had involved axillary lymph nodes. Of the 58 invasive cancers, only six (10.3%) had metastases to axillary nodes. Fifty-four patients (36.7%) were treated by mastectomy while 93 patients (63.3%) were treated conservatively, 20 by biopsy only, and 73 by lumpectomy, axillary node dissection, and radiation therapy. Only four patients (0.7%) had significant complications.