accuracy of intraoperative margin investigation by frozen-section in breast conservative surgery

background: now the vast majority of breast tumors are treated using breast conservation therapy (bct) method, including lumpectomy and radiotherapy. this study aimed to evaluate the effects of intraoperative frozen section in patients undergoing breast conservation surgery. methods: totally 237 women who included in the category for breast conservative or oncoplastic surgery and post-operative radiotherapy (early breast cancer stage i,ii and stage iiia after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and down staging) were enrolled inâ  this prospective study from march 2009 to june 2011. results: in frozen section, totally 88 margins (6.1%) in 60 patients (25%) was positive (1-5 positive margins/ patients) that all of these patients were re-excised. in precise pathologic view the margins in 7 patients (2.9%) was positive that comprised 4% of all margins, furthermore the results showed closed margin in 4 patients. false negative in our study occurred in 0.8% of patients and in 0.1% of margins (sensitivity 100% and specifity 99.2%). conclusion: we designated intraoperative margin assessment by frozen section as an effective method in decreasing the rate of additional operations for margin control. additionally, adequate margin width is accessible during same operation.