Ultrasound-guided surgery is best way to remove breast tumors

The use of ultrasound-guided surgery to remove tumors from women who have palpable breast cancer is much more successful than standard surgery in excising all the cancerous tissue while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible, according to the results of a randomized controlled trial. As a consequence, researchers told the eighth European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8) today that they expect their findings will change surgical practice and ultrasound-guided surgery (USS) should become the norm for excising palpable tumors, i.e. those that can be felt and, at present, are excised blindly, without visual aid from tools to help locate the precise position of the tumor during surgery. "Our results show that USS can prevent the unacceptably high rate of margins containing cancer cells in palpable breast cancer excision, thus avoiding subsequent surgery or radiotherapy ..." said Nicole Krekel, one the the study’s authors.