Intraoperative assessment of margins in breast conservative surgery--still in use?

Abstract

A positive margin in breast conserving surgery is associated with an increased risk of local recurrence. Failure to achieve clear margins results in re-excision procedures. Methods for intraoperative assessment of margins have been developed, such as frozen section analysis, touch preparation cytology, near-infrared fluorescence optical imaging, x-ray diffraction technology, high-frequency ultrasound, micro-CT, and radiofrequency spectroscopy. In this article, options that might become the method of choice in the future are discussed.

Keywords: breast cancer; breast conserving surgery; ductal carcinoma in situ; intraoperative margin assessment; optical imaging.