We enrolled 506 female CNB-diagnosed DCIS patients who underwent subsequent surgical excision between January 2000 and February 2011. A retrospective analysis of patients undergone core needle biopsy and subsequent surgical excision was performed. Ultrasonography guided CNB was performed using either an 8-, 11-gauge vacuum-assisted method, or a 14-gauge needle automated gun method.
The overall upstaging rate was 42.7 % (216/506). Multivariate analysis found that a palpable lesion, a lesion size >20?mm, a high grade lesion, and use of the 14-gauge needle method were independently associated with upstaging (p?<?0.05 for all variables). We designed a scoring system to predict lymph node positivity in these patients, and the subsequent ROC curve showed an AUC value of 0.746 (p?<?0.001, 95 % CI: 0.66-0.82). Patient with a non-high grade lesion that was ¡Ü20?mm in size carried no risk of lymph node positivity.
Upstaging was associated with lesions that were large, palpable or high grade. It was also associated with use of the 14-gauge needle method. Our scoring system might be helpful to identify patients who do not require sentinel lymph node biopsy.