Malignant breast masses detected only by ultrasound: A retrospective review

✍ Scribed by Daniel B. Kopans; Stephen A. Feig; Edward A. Sickles

• Book ID: 101227952
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 187 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19960101)77:1<208::aid-cncr33>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

Malignant Breast Masses Detected Only by Ultrasound: A Retrospective Review

octors Gordon and Goldenberg should be complemented on their D prodigious work using breast ultrasound, which they reported in the August 15 edition of Cancer.' Unfortunately, the authors' suggestion that "a survey scan of the ipsilateral breast be performed whenever diagnostic ultrasound is indicated for a palpable or mammographic finding" could be misconstrued in our litigious environment. It is important to make it clear that this is not the standard of care, and that the standard of care should not be based on a single report. As the authors have nicely summarized, the entire world's experience prior to this report, including their own first 15 patients, includes only 46 cancers that have been reported as having been detected by ultrasound alone. Their most recent report is retrospective, and leaves many unanswered questions.

The authors provide insufficient information regarding the type, size, and stage of the cancers that they detected so that the benefit of finding