LAUSR

Background Increasing number of patients with preexisting breast implants desire breast conservation therapy for breast cancer. There is paucity of comparative data on tumor margins and re-excisions in these patients. High re-excision rates up to 25% have been reported in breast conservation therapy patients; efforts to obtain cosmesis and avoid implant rupture might increase this further. We analyzed tumor margins, re-excision rates, and recurrence in previously augmented versus non-augmented patients undergoing lumpectomy for breast cancer. We preserved preexisting implants if feasible with oncologic clearance and cosmesis. Methods Institutional review board–approved retrospective analysis was performed on patients undergoing lumpectomy with history of prior breast augmentation (N = 52) and consecutively selected non-augmented patients (N = 51). Based on tumor distance to inked margin, we grouped margins as negative (≥2 mm), close (<2 mm), and positive. Patients were followed up clinically and with imaging in the outpatient clinic, and recurrences were documented. Results Patients in the non-augmented group were significantly more likely to have larger tumors (T2 and above; P = 0.05) compared with the augmented group. Although more patients in the augmented group had positive margins, this was not statistically significant (6 vs 3, P = 0.86). No difference was noted between re-excision rates among the augmented versus non-augmented groups (21.1% vs 19.6%, respectively; odds ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.35–2.37; P = 0.85); these remained unchanged even when adjusting for tumor stage (P = .75) and margins (P = 0.73). Although more patients in the augmented group recurred (4 vs 0), this was not statistically significant (P = 0.1). Conclusions Our results indicate that, from the oncological standpoint, patients with prior augmentation can undergo lumpectomy with equivalent tumor margins and re-excision rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported comparative study between these 2 groups.