Interventional Radiology in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Women pay a heavy toll to breast cancer. They are told they have a cumulative lifetime risk of developing the disease of approximately 1 in 10 and are encouraged to undergo regular physical and mammographic examinations as of 40 years of age. In the absence of an established preventive treatment, they insist upon early diagnosis, which will offer them the best chance of survival, and less aggressive and less mutilating treatments. This demand is motivated by the published results of the controlled screening programs that seem to confirm the model of tumor growth, proposed by Koscielny et al., based on the observation of a highly significant correlation between breast-tumor size, and the probabilities of distant spread and relatively late metastatic dissemination during the natural history of the disease (Koscielny et al. 1985). Consequently, the allegation of an error in the diagnosis of breast cancer is the most common reason for malpractice claims made against physicians, and the leading cause of indemnity payments for any single medical condition (Osuch and Bonham 1994; Brenner 1995; Berlin 1999).