Published in:
01-08-2007
Tattooing Breast Cancers Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
Published in: Annals of Surgical Oncology | Issue 8/2007
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Background
In breast carcinomas treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, intraoperative identification of residual tumors may be difficult. A well-tolerated, low-diffusion charcoal suspension has been designed to tattoo breast tumors. In this study, we investigated whether this tattooing technique is efficient for localizing the tumor after treatment with chemotherapy.
Methods
In a series of 109 patients with large breast tumors, a 4% or 10% charcoal suspension was injected at the time of the initial biopsy before preoperative chemotherapy.
Results
Tolerance was good. After three or four cycles of chemotherapy, 91 patients underwent conservative treatment, and the surgical specimen was examined intraoperatively. The charcoal was detected in 94% of the cases. The charcoal was seen in the nodule or at the periphery in the surgical specimen without any acute inflammatory reaction or diffusion.
Conclusions
On the basis of these results, this micronized charcoal suspension at a defined granulometry and a concentration of 10% seems to be ideal for tattooing breast carcinomas over a period of 3 months in patients in whom neoadjuvant chemotherapy is planned.