Surgical Margins in Breast Conservation
1Division of Breast Surgery, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
2Breakthrough Research Unit, Edinburgh Breast Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK
3Department of Breast Services, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA
4Division of Breast Surgery, Breast Center, Kameda Medical Center, 929 Higashi-cho, Kamogawa 296-8602, Japan
Surgical Margins in Breast Conservation
Description
Historically, clear surgical margins have been regarded as essential in minimizing local recurrence rates for breast cancer. As systemic therapies have improved and emerging therapies are changing the future of breast cancer care, the relevance of surgical margins is no longer so obvious. There is still no consensus regarding the definition of a clear margin, and preoperative imaging lacks the ability to delineate borders of most tumors. Intraoperative margin assessment is limited, and no consensus on pathologic evaluation of margins exists. The quest for wider margins comes at the cost of suboptimal cosmetic results, increased reexcision rates, or larger surgical procedures involving the contralateral breast. Patient and tumor factors as well as adjuvant therapies may be as important as surgical margins in achieving acceptable local recurrence rates. Newer ablative therapies provide a means to obtain local control without necessarily surgically clearing a margin.
We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will help to further elucidate the importance of surgical margins in achieving acceptable local recurrence rates in this era of improved adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Preoperative imaging strategies to define tumor boundaries
- Novel technology for intraoperative margin assessment
- Intraoperative and postoperative strategies for accurate pathologic margin assessment
- Preoperative definition and implications of margins in the setting of neoadjuvant chemotherapy
- Role of ablative therapies in lumpectomy cavity to increase tumor-free margins
- Role of quadrantectomy and oncoplastic surgery in achieving negative margins
- Relative importance of surgical clearance of margins versus adjuvant therapies
Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijso/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: