A Phase II Trial Exploring the Success of Cryoablation Therapy in the Treatment of Invasive Breast Carcinoma: Results from ACOSOG (Alliance) Z1072.

Background: Cryoablation is a well-established technique to treat fibroadenomas. Pilot studies suggest this could be an effective non-surgical treatment for breast cancer. American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z1072 is a phase II trial exploring the effectiveness of cryoablation in the treatment of breast cancers.

National Quality Measures for Breast Centers (NQMBC): a robust quality tool: breast center quality measures.

Introduction: Measuring and improving quality of care is of primary interest to patients, clinicians, and payers. The National Consortium of Breast Centers (NCBC) has created a unique program to assess and compare the quality of interdisciplinary breast care provided by breast centers across the country.

Methods: In 2005 the NCBC Quality Initiative Committee formulated their initial series of 37 measurements of breast center quality, eventually called the National Quality Measures for Breast Centers (NQMBC).

National quality validation programs for breast centers.

With the emphasis on quality of care spurred by the Institute of Medicine, two breast care quality programs have been developed. The National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers is composed of 13 national organizations interested in setting structural standards for breast care. Accreditation occurs during an on-site survey review of the three types of breast centers every 3 years.

Validating quality breast care: three new validation programs for 2007.

Background: Despite advances in treatment and decreases in mortality, high-quality breast care is distributed unevenly across the country. Efforts to measure and monitor the quality of breast care have been initiated for breast centers and breast surgeons.

Methods: The current efforts to define measures of breast care quality were examined.

Office-based cryoablation of breast fibroadenomas with long-term follow-up.

Approximately 10% of women will experience a breast fibroadenoma in their lifetime. Cryoablation is a new treatment that combines the better attributes of the current standards: surveillance and surgery. It is a minimally invasive office-based procedure that is administered without the use of general anesthesia, involving minimal patient discomfort and little to no scarring.

Cryoablation treatment of benign breast lesions with 12-month follow-up.

Objective: Eighty percent of all breast biopsies reveal benign findings. The most common benign tumor is a fibroadenoma. Despite their benign nature, many women eventually choose to have their bothersome lumps surgically removed.

Office-based cryoablation of breast fibroadenomas: 12-month followup.

Background: Fibroadenomas comprise between 30% and 50% of all breast biopsies. Despite their benign nature, many women have their fibroadenomas surgically removed. We previously reported on a minimally invasive therapy using cryoablation to treat fibroadenomas.

Cryosurgery for breast cancer.

As the majority of breast cancers present as small non-palpable lesions, alternatives for surgical lumpectomy come into consideration. Breast tumor ablation without surgical excision may be a less morbid procedure without sacrificing cancer control. Cryosurgery is one of several ablative options for the treatment of small unifocal breast cancer.

Intraoperative ultrasound facilitates surgery for early breast cancer.

Background: Mammogram-directed wire localization for nonpalpable cancer requires surgeon's time and coordination and some patient discomfort. Up to half of these nonpalpable lesions can be visualized by ultrasound. Use of intraoperative ultrasound streamlines the process of image-guided surgery.

Office-based ultrasound-guided cryoablation of breast fibroadenomas.

Background: Fibroadenomas commonly found by palpation and routine mammography account for approximately 20% of open surgical breast biopsies. Alternatives to open surgery include tumor removal using an automated coring device and tumor ablation using heating or cooling elements. We report our initial experience with cryoablation of biopsy-proven benign fibroadenomas.

A treatment scale for axillary management in breast cancer.

Background: We have investigated a method, the Kaufman axillary treatment scale (KATS), to help assign patients with a clinically negative axilla to one of three current options of axillary management: standard axillary dissection, sentinel node sampling followed by axillary dissection if the sentinel node is positive, or no axillary surgery at all. The KATS score uses preoperative data to guide the choice of axillary treatment.

Methods: The KATS score is calculated by adding the preoperative values of tumor size, patient age, and pathologic grade.

Excising the reexcision: stereotactic core-needle biopsy decreases need for reexcision of breast cancer.

There is debate regarding use of the stereotactic core-needle biopsy (SCNB) for highly suspicious mammographic lesions. This study compares a serial group of mammography-detected breast cancer patients treated before and after the use of SCNB. We studied 113 consecutive nonpalpable breast cancers between 1994 and 1996.