Overview Breast nodules are a common symptom of breast hyperplasia (which can form breast cysts) and breast neoplastic diseases, including benign breast tumors (such as breast fibroids, lobulated tumors, etc.) and breast malignancies (breast cancer). Symptoms Signs and symptoms of breast cancer may include: a breast lump or thickening that feels different from the surrounding tissue, change in the size, shape or appearance of a breast changes to the skin over the breast, such as dimpling, a newly inverted nipple, peeling, scaling, crusting or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple (areola) or breast skin, redness or pitting of the skin over your breast, like the skin of an orange.

Treatment

Minimally invasive techniques may offer a suitable alternative to surgical excision for low-risk, early breast cancers, particularly those small, good-prognosis tumours likely to be overtreated currently, with the attendant morbidities that ensure. These techniques are less invasive for patients, deliver good results, and are a cost-effective intervention for health care providers.  A meta-analysis of 1168 breast lesions compared technical success, technique efficacy, and complications associated with minimally invasive image-guided percutaneous ablation methods. RFA is the most used method (50%), with cryoablation used in only 13%. Pooled technical success was 96% (96% in radiofrequency and 95% in cryoablation), whilst pooled technique efficacy was suboptimal at 75% (67%- 81%). Technique efficacy was significantly better in patients who underwent RFA and cryoablation compared to laser, microwaves, and high-intensity focused ultrasound, and complication rates were low across the techniques (6%-8%). Patient-reported outcomes were not considered in this review.

Reference

Mauri G, Sconfienza LM, Pescatori LC, et al. Technical success, technique efficacy and complications of minimally-invasive imag ing-guided percutaneous ablation procedures of breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Radiol. 2017;27(8): 3199-3210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-016-4668-9