title: Malignant lesions initially categorized as probably benign breast lesions: retrospective review of ultrasonographic, clinical and pathologic characteristics.
abstract: The primary objective of this study was to review the ultrasonographic features of BI-RADS category 3 ("probably benign") lesions that eventually proved to be malignant. A second objective was to investigate their clinical and pathologic features according to their palpability and time of biopsy. Thirty-two (0.8%) of 4000 women with lesions that were initially classified as "probably benign" proved to be malignant and formed the study group. The most common reason for a false negative assessment on ultrasound was a failure to recognize suspicious margin characteristics (28 of 32 malignancies, 87.5%). Malignancy was more frequent in palpable (2.4%, 21 of 859) than nonpalpable lesions (0.4%, 11 of 3141, p < 0.001). There was no statistical difference in the mean age, mean size of lesions, or tumor stage between patients who underwent early biopsy (n = 19) or biopsy after 6 months (n = 13). Twenty-nine of the lesions (90.6%) were retrospectively recategorized as BI-RADS 4, which calls for early biopsy. BI-RADS 3 lesions require especially careful assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Research Institute of Radiological Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hee Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Min Jung
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jin Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kwak
authors.forename: Jung Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Soo Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yu-Mee
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Eun-Kyung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016217:Ultrasonography, Mammary / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*