Role of resection margins in patients treated with breast conservation surgery.

Background: After breast conservation therapy (BCT), margin status is routinely evaluated to select patients who need reexcision. The aim of this study was to investigate how margin status and other clinicopathologic factors correlate with the presence of residual tumor at reexcision.

Methods: A series of 431 breast cancer patients who underwent BCT followed by reexcision were considered because they had positive or close (< or =3 mm) margins.

Sentinel lymph node metastasis from mammary ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion.

Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion (DCISM) of the breast was controversial, because of the relevant morbidity incurred by the procedure and the low incidence of axillary involvement. The introduction of the sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy as a minimally invasive procedure for axillary staging has prompted new interest in this issue. However, as DCISM is a rare type of cancer, data on the incidence of SLN metastasis are scarce.