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To evaluate the ability to use breast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to assess disease extent in patients with posterior breast masses who are suspected to have tumor invasion into underlying muscle.Nineteen patients with posterior breast masses underwent three-dimensional, gradient-echo, 1.5-T MR imaging before and after the administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine. Thirteen had deep palpable masses that were clinically determined to be fixed to the underlying chest wall. Twelve had mammographic findings that caused muscle involvement to be suspected, and seven had normal mammograms. All patients underwent surgery. MR images were reviewed and were correlated with histologic findings.Enhancing masses were identified on MR images in all 19 patients. Five (26%) of the 19 patients had masses that abutted the muscles, with obliteration of the fat plane and muscle enhancement. All five had muscle involvement at surgery. In the remaining 14 (74%) patients, no enhancement of muscle was seen; none of these had invasion of the muscle at surgery.Extension of adjacent tumor into underlying musculature was indicated by abnormal enhancement within these structures. Violation of the fat plane between tumor and muscle, without other findings, did not indicate tumor involvement of these deep structures.

The authors reviewed 316 cases of breast carcinoma diagnosed from January 1, 1986, to December 31, 1989. Clinical data and mammograms were available for all patients. Of the 316 carcinomas, 272 (86.1%) were invasive; 37 (13.6%) of these represented pure invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC). Twenty-five (68.5%) of the 37 patients with ILC and 161 (70.3%) of the 229 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) presented with clinically palpable masses. Asymmetric opacities and architectural distortion were the predominant mammographic signs in 21 (57%) of the cases of ILC but only 32 (13.6%) of the cases of IDC. Malignant calcifications were not present in any of the patients with ILC but were present in 110 (47%) of those with IDC. Of the ILC lesions, 29 (85%) [corrected] had the same opacity as that of normal fibroglandular tissue, and the mammographic findings were often subtle and seen initially on one view only. There was no substantial difference in the TNM stage at diagnosis between the two study groups.

To identify causes of purported malpractice in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.The authors reviewed cases from The New York Jury Verdict Reporter listed between 1985 and 1991 to look for those in which there was alleged delay in diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer.Of 34 cases identified, 32 (94%) were based on presumed delay in diagnosis and only two (6%) on claims of therapeutic malpractice. Delay in diagnosis was commonly claimed in patients younger than 50 years (76%). Palpable masses were present in 94% of these cases. Either mammograms were not obtained (16 cases, 50%) or findings were interpreted as normal or as fibrocystic disease (12 cases, 38%). Specialists most frequently cited were gynecologists (16 of 39,41%). Highest awards (or = $1 million) were more commonly given to patients younger than 50 years with proved distant or nodal metastasis (six of 34, 18%).Emphasis on early diagnosis has led to the perception that purported delay in diagnosis, however short, even in the presence of a palpable mass, changes the chances for survival.

To define the role of special mammographic views in evaluating palpable breast masses, 70 consecutive women with palpable breast masses underwent standard two-view examination of each breast and spot compression-magnification and tangential view examination of the palpable mass. Thirty palpable masses were found in 30 patients (43%). Standard views depicted 26 masses (87%). Tangential views also depicted 26 masses. Some of the masses seen on tangential views were not seen on standard views and vice versa. Spot compression-magnification views depicted 29 masses (97%). Special views thus depicted an additional 9% of palpable masses not seen on standard views (four of 44 cases). All lesions not seen on tangential views were central; the one lesion not seen on spot compression-magnification views was peripheral. Special views allowed correct prediction of benign or malignant status in 77% of cases (23 of 30), while standard views allowed correct prediction in 69% of cases (18 of 26).

The accuracies of digitally guided biopsy versus ultrasound (US)-guided biopsy of the prostate were compared in 112 consecutive men with palpable prostatic lesions who had previously undergone conventional digitally guided biopsy and in which the results were negative for carcinoma. US-guided biopsies were performed with either the transperineal (n = 51) or transrectal (n = 61) approach, by means of previously described methods. All US-guided biopsies were performed within 3 months after the most recent conventional biopsy. In 44 patients (39.3%) with negative results of conventional biopsies, the results of US-guided biopsy revealed cancer. The transrectal and transperineal digitally guided biopsies were equally inaccurate, and the transrectal and transperineal US-guided biopsies showed no statistically significant differences in accuracy. The patients accepted and tolerated both US techniques equally well; neither technique was associated with significant complications. It is concluded that all patients with a palpable nodule should undergo US-guided biopsy if the result of conventional digitally guided biopsy is negative for cancer and the diagnostic US scan suggests an abnormality.

More than 400 breast patients (primarily symptomatic) have been examined with ultrasound alone and in combination with low-dose mammography. Symptomatic pregnant women and young patients with palpable masses were examined with ultrasound alone. In young, dense breasts, ultrasound was found to surpass mammography in the differential diagnosis of both cystic and solid masses. In older patients, the tumor characteristics displayed on ultrasound augmented those of mammography, resulting in increased diagnostic accuracy.

Mammograms of 59 women who underwent placement of a prosthesis for augmentation or reconstructive mammoplasty were retrospectively reviewed. Free silicone was used in five women, retroglandular prostheses in 40, and subpectoral implants in 14. Abnormalities of prosthesis contour were seen only in eight women with retroglandular implants. In another four women, retroglandular prostheses became calcified. In women who received free-silicone injections, coarse calcifications developed in three, and gross nodularity with calcified silicone granulomas developed in one. Five palpable masses developed, three of which were malignant; four masses were in breasts augmented with a retroglandular prosthesis, and they could not be detected with mammography. The mass that developed in a woman with a subpectoral prosthesis could be seen at mammography. The only nonpalpable malignancy detected with mammography was in a breast with a retroglandular prosthesis and contained microcalcifications. The authors conclude that in women with retroglandular prostheses, masses may often be obscured on mammograms by compressed, dense glandular tissue.

Focal fat collections or lipomas in the breast occasionally present as dominant palpable masses. A retrospective review was done of tissue obtained from 14 breast biopsies performed on the basis of palpatory findings; the specimens consisted almost entirely of fat. Preoperative mammograms were available in nine of these women and all showed the breasts to be composed largely of fat. In three patients there was virtually complete replacement of breast tissue by fat. In selected patients with fatty replacement of breast parenchyma, discordant palpatory and mammographic findings should suggest the diagnosis of a fatty mass or pseudomass and possibly obviate biopsy for purposes of tissue diagnosis.