title: Preoperative staging of breast cancer by palpation, mammography and high-resolution ultrasound.
abstract: In breast cancer preoperative determination of the tumor size is important for planning breast-conserving operations. In 100 patients with breast cancer, the preoperative tumor size was measured using clinical, mammographic and sonographic examinations and correlated with the results of a subsequent histological examination. Using a high-resolution real-time system, 98 tumors were visible. It was possible to detect not only early tumors under 1 cm in diameter, but also intraductal tumor components. This contributed greatly to the accuracy of the diagnosis. The sonographic measurement of tumor size demonstrated a correlation coefficient of 0.91 and was thus superior to mammography (0.79) and palpation (0.77). Measurement of the total tumor spread, including 39 multicentric lesions, showed an overestimation of 5% for the mammographic measurements and an overestimation of 4% for the sonographic measurements. Tumor extension was underestimated in 33% of the mammograms but in only 3% using ultrasound examination. The results, along with those of other studies, highlight the role of sonography in the diagnosis of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Madjar
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Ladner
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sauerbrei
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oberstein
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Prömpeler
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pfleiderer