What do clinicians do with the results of the systematic staging imaging at the time of the breast cancer diagnosis?

Introduction. - Asymptomatic distant metastasis is often looked for at the time of initial diagnosis of early breast cancer. However, there is no consensus on when to perform it and on the consequences on the treatment. Patients and methods. - One hundred and twenty-three asymptomatic women receiving systemic neoadjuvant (32 patients) or adjuvant treatment (91 patients) for breast cancer at the Oscar-Lambret center in September 2011 were considered. The staging imaging was a PET scan for 59 patients (pts), a CT scan and a bone scan for 59 patients and both for 5 patients. The result for each procedure was considered normal, abnormal but typically benign or potentially malignant. In this case, another imaging technique was carried out to confirm the suspected diagnosis. The patient was considered metastatic if the results of two different procedures were concordant and eventually in case of response to chemotherapy. Results. - Nine pts were considered metastatic (9/125 = 7%). They were stage 1: 1, stage 2: 4 and stage 3: 4. The staging by CT, abdomen and pelvis scan coupled with bone scintigraphy discriminated five metastatic patients with overdiagnosis of 33 benign lesions and the need of 20 additional confirmatory tests. Similarly, the PET staging, more expensive, only discriminated two metastatic patients and 15 benign lesions requiring 20 confirmatory tests. Conclusion. - These results support the international recommendations to make a staging from stage MA. The CT, abdominal and pelvic scan coupled with bone scintigraphy should be considered as a gold standard in breast cancer staging. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.