(HealthDay News) — For patients with benign radiologic-pathologic concordant minimally invasive breast biopsy, interval imaging performed after less than 12 months has a low yield and high cost for detection of breast cancer, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Breast Surgeons, held from May 1 to 5 in Chicago.
Demitra Manjoros, M.D., from Bryn Mawr Hospital in Pennsylvania, and colleagues conducted a retrospective chart review involving 689 patients who underwent image-guided breast biopsy at the Comprehensive Breast Center between January and December 2010. Interval imaging was obtained less than 12 months after benign biopsy for 337 radiologic-pathologic concordant patients.
The researchers found that, for 95.9 percent of the concordant patients, interval imaging at less than 12 months was benign with Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) 1, 2, or 3. A further 1.2% (two patients) received BI-RADS 0 and were deemed benign after further imaging. BI-RADS 4 was identified in five patients (3.0%), three at the original biopsy site and two at a distant site. Only one breast cancer was identified, representing 0.6% of all those concordant patients who underwent interval imaging. Detecting a missed cancer with interval imaging following benign radiologic-pathologic concordant minimally invasive biopsy cost an estimated $192,745.
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“Interval imaging performed less than 12 months after benign radiologic-pathologic concordant breast biopsy had a low yield for the detection of breast cancer (0.6%) and resulted in increased health care costs,” the authors write. “These data support the policy for discontinuation of interval imaging less than 12 months after benign radiologic-pathologic concordant biopsy.”
