The Impact of Residual Disease After Preoperative Systemic Therapy on Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Background: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and aggressive disease treated with multimodality therapy: preoperative systemic therapy (PST) followed by modified radical mastectomy (MRM), chest wall and regional nodal radiotherapy, and adjuvant biologic therapy and/or endocrine therapy when appropriate. In non-IBC, the degree of pathologic response to PST has been shown to correlate with time to recurrence (TTR) and overall survival (OS). We sought to determine if pathologic response correlates with oncologic outcomes of IBC patients.

Impact of margin status on local recurrence after mastectomy for ductal carcinoma in situ.

Purpose: To examine the rate of local recurrence according to the margin status for patients with pure ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) treated by mastectomy.

Methods And Materials: One hundred forty-five consecutive women who underwent mastectomy with or without radiation therapy for DCIS from 1998 to 2005 were included in this retrospective analysis. Only patients with pure DCIS were eligible; patients with microinvasion were excluded.

Surgical margins and the risk of local-regional recurrence after mastectomy without radiation therapy.

Purpose: Although positive surgical margins are generally associated with a higher risk of local-regional recurrence (LRR) for most solid tumors, their significance after mastectomy remains unclear. We sought to clarify the influence of the mastectomy margin on the risk of LRR.

Methods And Materials: The retrospective cohort consisted of 397 women who underwent mastectomy and no radiation for newly diagnosed invasive breast cancer from 1998-2005.

Sarcoidosis mimicking metastatic breast cancer.

The clinical and radiographic aspects of sarcoidosis and malignancy might mimic one another, making the distinction between the two difficult in some cases. Although there have been many theories on the link between sarcoidosis and malignancy, the association remains unproven. An unfortunate consequence of the presence of both entities in the same patient is the risk of misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment.