Diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment of early stage breast carcinoma

Abstract

In this thesis the diagnostic work up and minimally invasive surgical treatment of early stage breast carcinoma is studied. Although the surgical treatment of breast carcinoma has improved significantly over the past decades, there is still room for improvement. On the one hand the focus is on early stage (nonpalpable) breast carcinoma as it is considered a surgical challenge due to the need of preoperative localisation. On the other hand the focus is on future minimally or non-invasive treatment of early stage breast carcinoma and the improvement of adequate pre-operative determination of the extent of the disease