Baseline staging of newly diagnosed breast cancer--Kuwait cancer control center experience.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the value of staging investigations in detecting metastases in newly diagnosed asymptomatic patients with breast cancer.


METHODS
A retrospective review of patients' files with newly diagnosed breast cancer in the period from 1993 to 1998 was performed. Due to inadequate information, thirty-eight files were excluded leaving 785 files for analysis.


RESULTS
Of the total 785 patients, we found distant metastases at the time of primary diagnosis in 36 (4.6%) patients, bone metastases in 29 (3.7%) patients, pulmonary metastases in 6 (0.8%) patients and liver metastases in 5 (0.6%) patients. Overall, 0.7% of patients with clinical stage I and II disease had metastases compared with 16.2% of patients with clinical stage III disease (statistically significant p = 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
The results confirm the low yield of routine bone scans, liver ultrasound and chest X-ray among patients with asymptomatic early-stage breast cancer. These tests are therefore not recommended for such patients, although intensive investigations are appropriate for more advanced tumors.
Abuzallouf
Sadeq
S
Department of Radiation Oncology, Kuwait Cancer Control Center, Kuwait. zlouf@hotmail.com
Motawy
Mohammad
M
Thotathil
Ziad
Z
D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait / Q000453:epidemiology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D009367:Neoplasm Staging