An Intraoperative Localization Technique for a Postexcision Specimen of Nonpalpable Breast Calcifications: A Pilot Study

The specimens obtained through excisional biopsy (EB) are commonly large in size and it is difficult to remove the tissues containing nonpalpable calcifications accurately from them for pathologic examination. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop a novel method of subarea localization technique (SLT) for sampling from the postexcisional specimens. A retrospective clinical study of 48 consecutive patients with breast microcalcifications were divided into a study group (n = 24 patients, 25 breasts) and a control group (n = 24 patients, 24 breasts) in time sequence. The specimens of study group were localized by SLT performed by cutting lines and/or metallic markers. The main study end points were the duration of intraoperative pathologic diagnosis (DIPD) and duration of conclusive pathology diagnosis (DCPD). The number of frozen blocks, number of paraffin blocks, number of sections, and other parameters correlated with pathologic diagnosis were compared between the two groups. SLT was succeeded in 48 of 48 (100%) patients, which shortened DIPD (29.3 vs 45.5 minutes, P < 0.01) significantly with less frozen blocks (6.2 vs 12.6, P < 0.01) and less frozen sections (8.5 vs 13.7, P = 0.01) than that of the control group. Moreover, SLT shortened DCPD (4.1 vs 5.1 days, P = 0.02) with less paraffin blocks (12.2 vs 21.7, P < 0.01) and less paraffin sections (20.0 vs 39.9, P < 0.01) than that of the control group. SLT decreased workload of the specimens sampling procedure and SLT may be recommended as a reliable specimens sampling method to guide pathology test for EB specimens containing calcifications.