Abstract
[Objectives]To measure the pathological margin-tumor distance in specimens resected from breast-conserving surgery, and to clarify the usefulness of computed tomography (CT)-real-time virtual sonography (RVS) in determining the extent of resection in mastectomies. [Subjects] This study included patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery before the introduction of RVS (US group, n=50) or after the introduction of RVS (RVS group, n=50). [Methods] A 2-cm margin was added to define the extent of resection from each lesion. [Results] Margin-tumor distance was 15.7±6.4 mm in the US group and 20.8±7.5 mm in the RVS group (p=0.0003). Positive margins were seen in 8 cases in the US group (16%) and 4 cases in the RVS group (8%). In both groups, lesions of positive margins were intraductal components or ductal carcinomas in situ that were difficult to identify. [Conclusion] Based on a mean margin error of -4.3±6.4 mm in the US group and 0.8±7.5 mm in the RVS group, RVS offered improved accuracy and a tendency toward fewer margin-positive cases, suggesting that CT-RVS is useful for determining the extent of resection in breast-conserving surgery.
