The Centricity Score: A Novel Measurement to Aid in Conservative Breast Cancer Surgery

Abstract

Introduction: This study describes an intra-operative scoring system to advise the surgeon of the centricity of the tumour in the excised specimen. Methods: Spatial estimations were prospectively made in 10 consecutive patients undergoing wide local excision (WLE) using Bioptics intra-operative digital specimen imaging. The centricity score was defined as 100 – (ICD/SD × 100), where ICD is the inter-centre distance between the specimen’s centre and the tumour’s centre. Results: 10 patients with invasive breast cancer (T1b to T4a), mean age 56 years (range 44 - 71) were studied. The mean tumour and specimen diameter was 24 mm ± 10 (range 12 - 48) and 101 mm ± 22 (range 64 - 140). The mean centricity score was 86 ± 9 (range 65 - 95). Conclusion: This study successfully describes an intraoperative radiological spatial scoring system for patients undergoing WLE. Tumours were well centered in specimens with an overall score of 86/100. The centricity score could be used to guide excision and potentially set benchmarks for conservative breast surgery.