Resection Ratios and Tumor Eccentricity in Breast-Conserving Surgery Specimens for Surgical Accuracy Assessment

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Surgical Pathology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is a standard treatment for breast cancer.
• Accurate tumor removal is crucial for successful BCS outcomes.
• Evaluating surgical accuracy requires reliable specimen-based metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define and evaluate specimen parameters for assessing surgical accuracy in BCS.
• To establish metrics for comparing novel intra-operative guidance technologies in BCS.
• To analyze resection ratios and tumor eccentricity in a patient cohort.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 100 BCS patient specimens.
• Determination of resection ratio (specimen volume to tumor volume) at various margin widths (0, 1, 2, 10 mm).
• Calculation of tumor eccentricity and relative tumor eccentricity.

Main Results:

• Resection ratios varied significantly with margin width, with smaller margins yielding higher ratios.
• Median tumor eccentricity was 11.29 mm and relative tumor eccentricity was 0.66.
• These parameters demonstrated variability across patient subgroups.

Conclusions:

• Resection ratios and tumor eccentricity are potential outcome measures for evaluating BCS surgical accuracy.
• These metrics can be used to assess the efficacy of new intra-operative guidance technologies.
• Objective specimen parameters are essential for advancing BCS techniques.