Surgical margins in conservative treatment of breast cancer

systematic review

Abstract

There is an extensive debate about surgical margins, although 2010 International Consensus defines positive margin as microscopic tumor touching the stain and 2 mm for in situ carcinoma. At INCA, is considered satisfactory 10 mm margin for patients undergoing conservative surgery, and reexcision is recommended for those smaller than 10 mm. We searched for references at MEDLINE that studied reexcision rates and residual disease, and the association between surgical margins and breast cancer relapse between patients treated with conservative surgery. An amount of 113 articles were identified, but only 5 included. Only 2 articles associated reexcision rates and residual disease in reexcision specimens. The others evaluated the impact of surgical margins in local and distance recurrence and global survival. Residual disease in reexcision specimens was an important prognostic factor and correlates to the risk of distant recurrence, showing that the biologic component of the tumor might be more important than margins distance.