The value of laparoscopic liver examination in the management of breast cancer.
One-hundred selected breast cancer patients underwent a laparoscopic liver examination to evalute this procedure in the management of breast cancer. Group I contained patients with primary breast tumors considered to be localized. Group II consisted of cases which had disseminated disease at initial evaluation or had recurrent disease. In group I, 8.5% showed macrometastases less than 1 cm in size at laparoscopy in clinically uninvolved livers. This converted a presumed localized lesion to stage IV disease and was managed accordingly. Cases evaluated as high-risk cases due to local factors, however, were not found to have liver involvement at laparoscopy, and hence adequate local therapy could be undertaken. In group II, metastatic liver involvement detected at laparoscopy was 22.5%. This simple, safe, and short procedure is therefore felt to be a useful complementary investigation in the management of breast cancer.
D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D008875:Middle Aged