[Is there still a place for extemporaneous exam in breast cancer?].

OBJECTIVE: The rise of preoperative diagnosis thanks to new methods of micro and macrobiopsy and the development of sentinel lymph node have dramatically modified the surgical management of patients with breast tumor. The purpose of this study is to know if extemporaneous exams still have a place in the management of breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective study which compares the qualitiative evolution of frozen sections in breast tumor at Jean-Perrin center before the practice of percutaneous strereotaxic biopsy and after the training of sentinel lymph node operative biopsy.
RESULTS: The results were in favour of a different distribution of anatomocytopathological activity with a decrease of frozen section in breast tumor and an increase of cytological imprints on sentinel nodes. DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSION: The interest of histologic preoperative diagnosis and the failure of consensus in the sentinel lymph node just leave a restrictive position to frozen section in breast cancer.