(Breast and endocrine section)

The gold standard for surgically treated breast cancer is breast conserving surgery (BCS) and sentinel lymph node biopsy. Axillary clearance is reserved for patients with axillary metastasis. Current research in the section focuses on the oncological consequences of the changes in surgical strategy. The studies include the association between size of resection margin and risk of recurrence, cosmetic outcome, and late morbidity. Research in these areas consists of both retrospective and prospective studies. Based on a large national cohort of patients from Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group (DBCG) the importance of the size of the resection margin has been studied. Much debate has been on this issue in recent years and the international guidelines have changed allowing smaller resection margins than previously recommended. Indeed the evidence in the field is sparse and the current research, which has been performed by PhD-student Anne Bodilsen, will answer important questions.

Oncoplastic surgery has gradually replaced the more traditional breast conserving surgical techniques in  a large number  of patients with early breast cancer. At the entrance to that new era we found it is important to precisely describe the current status of BCS (followed by radiotherapy) including the cosmetic outcome and risk of fibrosis etc.  to have a baseline for evaluating the outcome after oncoplastic surgery Lyngholm et al 2013. Previous BCS outcomes were evaluated as satisfactory by most patients, but from a  surgeon’s perspective only half of the results were  acceptable.

Late morbidity after breast cancer treatment and rehabilitation has been a major research area for the department Lauridsen et al 2005; Madsen et al 2008, and consequently the department focuses on this in relation to oncoplastic surgery.

Furthermore, some studies are conducted in collaboration with the Department of Oncology and the Department of Histopathology to evaluate the influence of biological variation and age on outcome. 

Contacts:

Peer Christiansen, Professor, Consultant surgeon, DMSci, peerchri@rm.dk
Hanne Rønning, Consultant surgeon, hannroen@rm.dk
Lone Fischer, Consultant surgeon, lonefisc@rm.dk
Nidal Al-Suliman, Consultant surgeon, nidals@rm.dk
Marco Mele, Consultant surgeon, marcmele@rm.dk
Anne Bodilsen, MD, PhD student, abodilsen@ki.au.dk
Christina Daugaard Lyngholm, MD, PhD student, christina@oncology.dk  
Katrine Rye Hauerslev, MD, Registrar, Katrine.Hauerslev@rm.dk
Annette Zøylner, Clinical Research Nurse; ingrzoey@rm.dk