Purpose of review: Surgical treatment of breast cancer is becoming increasingly more minimally invasive. We review the development status of percutaneous management for primary breast cancer and the evidence relating to tumor size as a fundamental determinant of treatment clinical outcome.
Recent findings: It is safe and feasible for percutaneous management to treat breast cancer. For tumor size ≤ 2 cm, percutaneous management is a promising alternative modality. For tumor size ≤ 3 cm, it is controversial whether percutaneous management can achieve similar effects to surgery, especially its long-term effects. For tumor size > 3 cm, it is still in the initial exploration stage and showed the potential in the treatment of unresectable cancer by benefitting the local control of primary cancer. Percutaneous management of breast cancer is a valuable method for breast cancer treatment in selected patients. However, it will be necessary to provide the high level of evidence for widespread clinical application.
Keywords: Ablation techniques; Breast; Carcinoma; Cryosurgery; Laser therapy; Radiofrequency ablation; high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.