Staging procedures in primary breast cancer.
BACKGROUND
In consideration of increasing incidence by introduction of screening mammography, the prevalence of distant metastases and necessity of staging procedures in early breast cancer should be proved.


METHODS
A retrospective review was undertaken of 466 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer in the period from 2003 to 2006.


RESULTS
Distant metastases were found in 22 (4.8%) patients at the time of primary diagnosis of breast cancer. None of these patients had a tumour < or =1 cm and the percentage of metastatic disease increased with local extension (pT1 1.4%; pT2 7.9%; pT3 14.3%; pT4 23.1%; p<0.001) and nodal status (pN0 1.7%; pN1 3.8%; pN2 21.7%; pN3 17.6%; p<0.001)


CONCLUSIONS
Indication for bone scan, liver ultrasound and chest x-ray should be limited to patients with tumours >2 cm, or tumours >1 cm with lymph node involvement (N1-3).
Müller
Daniela
D
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany. dm022587@uni-greifswald.de
Köhler
Günter
G
Ohlinger
Ralf
R