Sonography of palpable breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Because of the increasing use of sonography to rule out cancer in women with palpable breast abnormalities, this study was performed to determine the rate of sonographically occult malignancy in this clinical setting.


METHODS
Women who were recommended for biopsy based on mammographic and/or clinical findings underwent breast sonography. This study retrospectively analyzed the subset of patients with palpable malignant lesions. Lesions were classified as visible or occult on mammography and sonography. Patients without a tissue diagnosis of tumor were excluded.


RESULTS
Of 1,346 masses that underwent biopsy or aspiration, 616 lesions were palpable, and of these, 293 were malignant. Sonography detected all 293 palpable malignant lesions (95% confidence interval for sensitivity, 99-100%). Eighteen lesions were mammographically occult. The median lesion size as determined by sonography was 1.8 cm; for the lesions that were mammographically occult, the median size was 1.6 cm. The most common histopathologic diagnosis for both groups of lesions was infiltrating ductal carcinoma.


CONCLUSIONS
All palpable malignant breast lesions were visible by sonography in patients in whom a biopsy was recommended. However, we caution that until the false-negative rate of sonography for equivocal palpable abnormalities is determined prospectively, sonography cannot be accurately applied to rule out malignancy in this setting.
Georgian-Smith
D
D
Department of Radiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Box 357115, 1959 Northeast Pacific Street, Seattle, Washington 98195-7115, USA.
Taylor
K J
KJ
Madjar
H
H
Goldberg
B
B
Merritt
C R
CR
Bokobsa
J
J
Rubin
E
E
Mendelson
E B
EB
Fornage
B D
BD
Rouse
G
G
Wadden
N A
NA
Dewbury
K C
KC
Cosgrove
D O
DO
Schmidt
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010173:Palpation; D010808:Physical Examination; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018615:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color / Q000379:methods