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MEDLINEPLUS: Docs Quick to Dismiss Breast_cancer without Biopsy Skip to content Search Advanced Search Site Map About MEDLINEPLUS Home Docs Quick to Dismiss Breast_cancer without Biopsy Reuters Health Monday, June_24, 2002 NEW_YORK (Reuters Health)- Too many breast_cancer patients are_told initially they are cancer-free, most often because their physicians said they believed the suspicious mass was harmless and didn't perform a biopsy to check, according_to researchers.""Despite widespread screening mammography, inappropriate reassurance that a palpable mass is benign, without biopsy, remains the leading cause of physician-delayed diagnosis of breast_cancer, affecting 5%of patients in our series,"Dr. William H. Goodson of the University of California, San_francisco, and his co-author Dr. Dan H. Moore write.""Combining all causes, 9%of patients experienced delay,"Goodson and Moore added. Although most patients with breast_cancer do not experience a delay in diagnosis, previous studies have found that between 6%and 16%of patients are initially, and mistakenly, told by their doctors that they do not have the disease. If 180,000 women develop breast_cancer each_year, the authors reason, at_least 10,000 patients may_be_misdiagnosed initially as cancer-free. Goodson and Moore set_out to determine the most common causes of delay in physicians'ability to diagnose breast_cancer by examining the time taken to correctly diagnose 435 patients who underwent surgery to remove 454 breast_cancers. Goodson and Moore found that a total of 42 cancers or 9%of all diagnosed, belonged to patients who were_told initially they were cancer-free. Half of the delays in diagnosis lasted 9 months or longer, and the longest delay lasted 3 years. Most of the patients given an initially incorrect diagnosis were_told by their doctors that a suspicious lump was benign without performing a biopsy, during which doctors remove cells from the lump to test for the presence of disease. Another 14 patients did not receive a prompt diagnosis because their mammograms had_been misread, and 9 others were_diagnosed mistakenly as cancer-free because_of botched biopsies, either a misreading of the results or from mistakes in performing the procedure. One aspect that might influence delays in diagnosis, the authors report, is whether or not patients found the suspicious mass themselves or the lump was_detected by a woman's_doctor . Although 35%of cancers in_this study group were_discovered first by the patient herself, patient-found tumors represented almost two-thirds of all cases in which a delay in diagnosis occurred.""Physicians seem to intuit lower cancer risk for self-discovered masses and seek to reassure patients using CBE (clinical breast examination) or mammography, without performing biopsy, "Goodman and Moore write in the June_24 Archives of Internal_medicine. In_order_to reduce the risk of delays in diagnosis, the authors recommend that doctors not rely_on clinical breast exams to indicate whether a suspicious lump is cancerous. Furthermore, Goodman and Moore write that biopsies should be_conducted by trained professionals, who are less prone to mistakes.""Reducing delay in diagnosis will require less willingness to rely_on clinical examination to decide that a mass is benign, less reliance on benign mammography reports to decide not to biopsy a mass, and a requirement that fine-needle aspiration biopsy be_done by persons with demonstrated competence for the procedure, "Goodman and Moore conclude. SOURCE: Archives of Internal_medicine 2002; 164: 1343-1348. Copyright 2002 Reuters. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Reuters. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is_prohibited expressly without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall_not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters, the Reuters Dotted Logo and the Sphere Logo are_registered trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Related News: More news on Breast_cancer More news on Mammography More News on this Date Related MEDLINEPLUS Pages: Breast_cancer Mammography Health Topics Drug Information Dictionaries Directories Other Resources Home U_s. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894 Contact Us, Copyright, Privacy, Accessibility, Selection Guidelines , FAQS Page last updated: 25 June 2002