Intraoperative surgical margin evaluation using macroscopic pathological examination in breast cancer patients undergoing primary breast-conserving surgery

Background: Worldwide, nearly 20% of breast cancer (BC) women treated by breast-conserving surgery (BCS) need reoperation because of positive margins at final pathology. Intraoperative margin assessment techniques have been developed to improve the real-time assessment of tumor margins during BCS. In our hospital practice, the intraoperative pathologic assessment with macroscopic (gross) pathologic margin evaluation of all lumpectomy specimens is a routine. The study aims were to evaluate the accuracy of intraoperative macroscopic pathological margin evaluation (IMPME) in BC patients treated by BCS and to evaluate the rate of perioperative and secondary margin re-excision.