Intraoperative ultrasound for palpable breast cancer: the way forward?

Breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by radiotherapy for breast cancer is equivalent to mastectomy in terms of overall survival as is evident from Randomised Controlled Trials with long term follow up (1-3). BCS is particularly relevant to the management of breast cancer today as an increasing proportion of breast cancers are diagnosed with a size of 20 mm or less, mainly due to increased breast awareness and widespread uptake of screening mammography. With increasing acceptance, the indications to BCS have expanded in recent years; effective use of neo-adjuvant therapy to shrink the size of cancer (>3 cm) has made it an established practice to consider BCS for women with larger breast cancers.