The role of ultrasound in the surgical management of patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of ultrasound (US) as an adjunct to mammography (MMG) in the surgical treatment planning for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast. A total of 119 patients diagnosed with DCIS, who were treated between 1999 and 2002, were identified from the institutional database. US and MMG size of suspicious abnormalities, pathologic tumor size, and findings of axillary US and surgical axillary evaluation were analyzed.

Feasibility of radiofrequency ablation for primary breast cancer.

As the management of breast cancer evolves towards less invasive treatment, the next step is the possibility of removing the primary tumor without surgery. The most promising of the noninvasive ablation techniques is radiofrequency ablation, which uses frictional heating caused when ions in the tissue attempt to follow changing directions of a high frequency alternating current. The radiofrequency probe is typically placed into the tumor under ultrasound guidance, and the ablation is performed with real time ultrasound monitoring.

Aromatic DNA adducts and polymorphisms of CYP1A1, NAT2, and GSTM1 in breast cancer.

Previous studies by us and others have shown a significantly higher level of aromatic DNA adducts in normal adjacent breast tissue samples obtained from breast cancer patients than in those obtained from non-cancerous controls. The increased amount of DNA damage could be related to excess environmental carcinogen exposure and/or genetic susceptibility to such exposure. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between the levels of aromatic DNA adducts in breast tissues and polymorphisms of the drug-metabolizing genes cytochrome P4501A1 (CYP1A1), N-acetyltransferase-2 (NAT2), and glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1), in 166 women having breast cancer.