Frequency and distribution pattern of distant metastases in breast cancer patients at the time of primary presentation

Schneider, Christoph ; Fehr, Mathias ; Steiner, Rolf ; Hagen, Daniela ; Haller, Urs ; Fink, Daniel

In: Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 2003, vol. 269, no. 1, p. 9-12

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    Summary
    Introduction.: For routine staging of patients with primary breast cancer, clinical practice guidelines of many medical societies recommend chest X-ray, liver ultrasound and bone scan. With respect to expanding health care costs and patients' psychological distress it has been supposed, that there might be a group of breast cancer patients, who do not need these imaging studies. Methods.: Four hundred and eighty-eight consecutive patients with primary breast cancer who had primary surgery at our institution and complete work-up for distant metastases including chest X-ray, liver ultrasound, and bone scan were studied. Results.: We found distant metastases at the time of primary diagnosis in 19 patients (3.9%). Bone metastases were found in 2.7%, liver metastases in 1.0%, and pulmonary metastases in 0.4%. However, in breast tumors smaller than 1cm, no metastatic lesions were found, whereas 18.2% of the patients with pT4 tumors had metastases. In 2.4% of screening imaging studies, metastases were ruled out by additional imaging. Conclusion.: Based on our data and a review of the literature, we suggest that chest X-ray, liver ultrasound and bone scan can be omitted in the staging of asymptomatic patients with pT1a or pT1b disease