Endoscopic assisted breast conserving surgery for breast cancer: Clinical outcome, learning curve, and patient reported aesthetic results from preliminary 100 procedures.

Background: Endoscopic assisted breast surgery was associated with small and inconspicuous scar and endoscopic assisted breast conserving surgery (E-BCS) for breast cancer was increasingly performed as well. The clinical outcomes, learning curve analysis and patient reported cosmetic result of E-BCS for breast cancer were reported along with a review of the current literature.
Methods: A retrospective study analyzing the outcomes of E-BCS for breast cancer patients through an endoscopic breast surgery database in a single institution from June 2009 to May 2019 was performed and a literature review through Pubmed and Medline was conducted as well.
Results: 100 consecutive breast cancer patients who underwent E-BCS were analyzed. The mean age of patients was 52.5 years old. Furthermore, the mean pathologic tumor size was 1.6 cm and majority of patients had early stage (13% stage 0, 56% stage I, and 30% stage II) breast cancer. The mean operation time of E-BCS in the current study was 133 ± 50 min and in learning curve analysis, after accumulation of 15 consecutive cases the operation time significantly decreased. The morbidities of E-BCS were minor and most of them were skin flap related. The margin involvement rate was 4%. About 98% of patients surveyed were satisfied with the incision length, location and scar appearance of E-BCS whereas all of them were satisfied with E-BCS in general. With a mean follow-up of 29.2 ± 24.4 months, 3% of patients developed locoregional recurrences, 3% had distant metastasis and there were 2 mortalities observed.
Conclusion: In our preliminary experience, E-BCS is a promising surgical technique for selected early breast cancer patients with low morbidity, acceptable oncological outcomes and high patient satisfaction.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None of the authors have conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.)