LOS ANGELES, Oct 9, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A third of U.S. women suspected of
having breast cancer get open surgery biopsies, though the needle biopsy
represents "best practice," researchers say.
A panel recently convened at the International Consensus Conference on Image
Detected Breast Cancer III unanimously agreed that percutaneous needle biopsy is
the way to go and should be the "gold standard" for initial diagnosis of breast
abnormalities.
Their report, published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, says
the open surgery biopsies are still being done despite needle biopsies being
equally accurate with much less risk of infection and at lower cost.
"In spite of considerable agreement in the medical literature and national
recommendations published by industry thought leaders such as the American
College of Surgeons and the American Society of Breast Surgeons, there was only
a small decrease in the number of surgical biopsies since our last conference
four years ago," Dr. Melvin Silverstein of the Hoag Breast Care Center in
Newport Beach, Calif., and of the Keck School of Medicine, University of
Southern California in Los Angeles, said in a statement
Silverstein was chairman of the 2001, 2005 and 2009 Consensus Conferences.
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