Breast-conservation treatment outcomes: a community hospital's experience.

In the United States, the majority of early breast cancer patients choose breast-conserving treatment in the community setting, yet there is a paucity of literature describing outcomes. In this paper, we describe our experience with breast-conserving treatment in a small community hospital. Our hospital tumor registry was used to identify breast cancer cases diagnosed at our hospital between 1997 and 2003.

Cost savings associated with the use of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) for the diagnosis of palpable masses in a community hospital-based FNAB clinic.

Background: Generally, it is assumed that fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) for the diagnosis of superficial, palpable masses is a less expensive alternative to diagnostic open surgical biopsy; however, to the authors' knowledge few studies to date have sought to quantify the number of diagnostic surgical procedures avoided and cost savings involved. In this article, the authors report their experience with 664 FNAB procedures that were performed by a cytopathologist/cytotechnologist team practicing in a community setting.

Methods: Records from a total of 664 consecutive FNAB cases from 607 patients who underwent FNAB in a community hospital-based FNAB clinic between 2003 and 2005 were reviewed retrospectively, and follow-up data were obtained.