Positive margins following breast cancer tumorectomy. Can we predict the occurrence of residual disease?

Aims And Background: In conservative early stage breast cancer surgery, the sample's margins are directly related to relapse, and positive or close margins indicate the need for additional surgery. Since the range of residual disease in secondary surgeries and the related pathological factors are highly variable, we intended to evaluate the number of additional surgeries due to compromised margins and identify the percentage of residual disease and factors related to it.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical records of 659 tumorectomy or needle localization surgery patients with breast carcinoma at the Hospital Universitario Austral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between December 2000 and December 2012.