Objective cosmetic analyses after breast surgery with the breast analysing tool (BAT) correlates with subjective and objective scores: a new tool for prospective trials.

Abstract

Abstract Abstract #5150 Objective: Objective cosmetic analyses are important to reproducibly evaluate cosmetic outcome after oncoplastic surgery, breast conserving surgery or new radiotherapy methods such as partial breast irradiation. We developed a new objective scoring software, the breast analysing tool (BAT), to measure cosmesis using a single frontal picture. Method: Images from 129 breast cancer patients after breast conserving therapy and radiotherapy were analysed with the software. Distances from the breast border to the nipple, from the Jugulum to the nipple and the breast circumference of one breast was subtracted from the other. The difference in pixels transferred to a breast symmetry index (BSI) by using a mathematic formula. This results in a BSI ranging between 0 (excellent cosmesis) and 11 (bad cosmesis). The results were correlated with the subjective Harris scale ranging from 1-4 (excellent, good, fair and poor cosmesis) and another objective tool, the breast cancer conserving treatment cosmetic result (bcct.core) software. Subjective analyses were done by students (n=4), surgeons (n=10) and experts in breast surgery (n=2) as well as by international experts using a Delphi procedure (n=13). Results: All subjective scores significantly (p<0.05) correlated with the BAT score with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.719 (students), 0.697 (surgeons), 0.760 (experts local) and 0.60 (experts international). There was also a significant correlation between the bcct.core and the BAT software with a correlation coefficient of 0.581.
 
 Conclusion: The BAT software is ready to be used for prospective and retrospective trials in local breast cancer therapy. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 5150.