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. 2018 Sep 10;172(3):679–687. doi: 10.1007/s10549-018-4953-1

Table 9.

Occult cancers reported in the literature

References Subjects# % of BRCA # of BPM # of Total PM Occult cancer rate by total PM# Pre-PM exam Pathological method
Hartmann [5] 645 NA 645 1290 6/1290 (0.5%) NA NA
Meijers-Heijboer [6] 76 100 76 152 1/152 (0.7%)
LCIS:1, No DCIS or IDC
PE, MMG, or MRI 3 random blocks/quadrant
Yao [7] 150 100 148 298 4/298 (1.3%)
IDC:1, DCIS:3
PE, MMG, or US, All MRI NA
Burger [8] 71 8.5 12 83 4/83 (4.8%)
ILC(3.5 mm):1, LCIS:3
NA NA
Boughey [9] 409 5.6 27 436 22/436 (5.0%)
IDC:2, ILC:6
(IDC&ILC:2–9 mm)
DCIS:14
PE, MMG 2 section/each quadrant & nipple
van Sprundel [10] 79 100 0 79 4/79 (5.1%)
IDC(32 mm):1, DCIS:3
PE, radiological NA
McLaughlin [11] 529 9.3 84 613 33/613 (5.4%)
IDC:10, DCIS:23
PE, MMG, (US and/or MRI), (235/529pts: MRI) 2 section/each quadrant & nipple
Evans [12] 105 100 0 105 6/105 (5.7%)
IDC:4, DCIS:2
NA NA
Hoogerbrugge [13] 67 66 41 108 10/108 (9.3%)
IDC(4 mm):1
DCIS(2–40 mm):9
(17/67pts: LCIS)a
PE, MMG, 4/10pts MRI, (27/67pts: MRI) 5 mm slices and radiological exam, then suspicious lesions and randomly selected each quadrant and nipple (Ave. 19 slides)
Kauff [14] 24 100 7 31 3/31 (9.7%)
DCIS(7–20 mm):3
(LCIS: 1)a
MMG 2–4 section/each quadrant& nipple
Black [15] 173 17 19 192 19/192 (9.9%)
IDC(1.5–10 mm):5, DCIS:14
59/173pts MRI NA
Our study 51 92 2 53 6/53 (11.3%)
IDC(5 mm):1, DCIS:5
PE, MMG, US & MRI About 1 cm slices

BPM bilateral prophylactic mastectomy, DCIS ductal carcinoma in situ, IDC invasive ductal carcinoma, ILC invasive lobular carcinoma, LCIS lobular carcinoma in situ, MMG mammography, MRI magnetic resonance imaging, NA not available, PE physical examination, PM prophylactic mastectomy, US ultrasound

aLCIS were detected, but not included, as occult cancer cases, as they may co-exist with DCIS