الفهرس 
Breast Imaging AnatomyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The goal of breast conservation treatment is complete removal of the malignant breast tumor and a surrounding rim of normal breast tissue. The oncologic principle of complete tumor resection including a surrounding rim of non malignant tissue to reduce local recurrence rate is followed with a secondary goal being the maintenance of an adequate amount of non-malignant breast tissue to produce a normal breast contour thus the term breast conservation.
Technology advances over the last decade have fueled interest in even less invasive local treatments for patients with breast carcinoma. Minimally invasive thermal destruction rather than surgical excision of early stage primary breast tumors may be appropriate in carefully selected patients. One treatment technique that allows in-situ percutaneous destruction of a breast tumor is radio- frequency ablation. However, definitive RFA should never be undertaken without histological confirmation of malignancy. The objective of RFA is clearance of the local disease with a margin of clear tissue and to achieve an acceptable cosmetic outcome, in patients with early stage breast cancer.
For successful RFA treatment, the breast carcinoma needs to be of the invasive ductal type, a centrally located solid mass without any micro-calcification, less than 20 mm in diameter and distant to the skin and the pectoralis muscle by at least 1cm on US examination. For best results, a radiologist who is fully trained and experienced in interventional breast ultrasound should perform the procedure as a high level of 3-D accuracy is required to correctly place the needle-electrode inside the tumor volume.
RFA may be an alternative treatment option to lumpectomy in elderly patients with comorbid conditions who fear surgery. The procedure is cheaper and much less invasive than surgery. Typically, percutaneous RFA-lumpectomy under US/MRI guidance is given as an outpatient procedure with the patient lightly sedated. RFA of early stage primary breast carcinoma revealed that coagulation necrosis of the tumor is complete with minimal complication rate evaluation of RFA in the treatment of patients with early stage breast carcinoma.
A combination of image-guided RFA of breast tumor with concurrent axillary staging using the minimally invasive and highly accurate sentinel lymph node biopsy could potentially become the future breast-conserving therapy for breast cancer.
Different studies to assess the oncologic effectiveness of this treatment, and the long term effects of RFA on the breast tissues, keeping in mind the treatment limitations and variations among patients should be performed.