[Concordance standards of breast cancer pathology reporting: with international a 4-year study in Kerman]

ABSTRACT

Accurate pathology reporting is important for treatment of malignancies including breast cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the concordance of the current reporting system with international cancer reporting guidelines. Pathology reports of 112 consecutive cases of invasive breast cancer who were treated by modified radical mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection in different hospitals of Kerman city during 2001 to 2004 were studied. Adherence to the international guidelines for macroscopic and microscopic items were determined. Pathology reports were collected from pathology centers of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, social security organization and private laboratories. Rosai check list was considered as our standard reporting proforma. One hundred twelve cases met the inclusion criteria. The results of reporting of the prognostic criteria were as follow Histologic type [100%], lymph node status [96.4%], tumor size [93.7%], tumor location [91.2%], histologic grade [87.5%], vascular invasion [85.7%], perineural invasion [83.9%], status of surgical margins [82.3%], calcification [75%], necrosis [74.1%], presence of insitu component [39.3%], tumor multicentricity [38.4%], extent of lymph node involvement [33%], extent of insitu component [23.2%] and level of lymph node involvement [0.8%]. In most reports the presence and extent of carcinoma insitu, level and extent of lymph node metastasis and tumor multicentricity have been ignored. Considering the pivotal role of these factors using a standard reporting protocol is suggested