In this Tuesday morning presentation, Dr. Joao Horvat will share study results that demonstrate the effectiveness of doing another breast ultrasound scan of women seeking a second opinion after initial breast ultrasound. The assessments found 12 additional cancers and led to a change in management in one-third of patients.
The study included outside breast ultrasound studies that were submitted for second-opinion interpretation by 209 patients between January 2013 and May 2014. The researchers performed ultrasound scans for all of these cases and then compared their real-time interpretations of these studies with the original reports.
Following the scans, 32.5% of patients had a change in management: 49 additional biopsies of lesions not originally recommended for biopsy were performed in 43 patients, 12 additional cancers and four high-risk lesions were identified, and 40 original biopsy recommendations were canceled.
"Real-time ultrasound re-evaluation after second-opinion review of outside breast ultrasound studies can detect additional cancers and high-risk lesions and avert unnecessary biopsies," Horvat and colleagues concluded.
