Objectives: To define reference values for shear wave elastography (SWE) in unsuspicious axillary lymph nodes in patients undergoing breast ultrasound examination. Methods: In total, 177 clinically and sonographically unsuspicious axillary lymph nodes were prospectively evaluated with SWE using Virtual Touch Tissue Imaging Quantification (VTIQ) in 175 women. Mean values of tissue stiffness for axillary fatty tissue, lymph node cortex, and lymph node hilus were measured. Additionally, test-retest reliability of SWE in the assessment of axillary lymph node stiffness was evaluated by repeating each measurement three times. Results: In 177 axillary lymph nodes, the mean stiffness of lymph node cortex, hilus, and surrounding fatty tissue as quantified by SWE was 1.90 m/s (SD: 0.34 m/s), 2.02 m/s (SD: 0.37 m/s), and 1.75 m/s (SD: 0.38 m/s), respectively. The mean stiffness of cortex and hilus was significantly higher compared to fatty tissue (p < 0.0001). SWE demonstrated good test–retest reliability in the assessment of stiffness of the lymph node hilus, cortex, and the surrounding fatty tissue with an intraclass correlation of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.75; 0.83), 0.75 (95% CI: 0.70; 0.79), and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.74; 0.82), respectively, (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Reference values for SWE in unsuspicious axillary lymph nodes are determined. These results may help to better identify axillary lymph node metastasis for breast cancer patients when combined with other lymph node features. SWE is a reliable method for the objective quantification of tissue stiffness of axillary lymph nodes. Advances in knowledge: This study presents physiological reference values for tissue stiffness by examining the axillary lymph nodes with SWE in 175 women with sonomorphologically unsuspicious lymph nodes.

Purpose: This is the first study to systematically evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of intraoperative specimen radiography on margin level and its potential to reduce second surgeries in patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: This retrospective study included 174 cases receiving breast conserving surgery (BCS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) of primary breast cancer. Conventional specimen radiography (CSR) was performed to assess potential margin infiltration and recommend an intraoperative re-excision of any radiologically positive margin. The histological workup of the specimen served as gold standard for the evaluation of the accuracy of CSR and the potential reduction of second surgeries by CSR-guided re-excisions. Results: 1044 margins were assessed. Of 47 (4.5%) histopathological positive margins, CSR identified 9 correctly (true positive). 38 infiltrated margins were missed (false negative). This resulted in a sensitivity of 19.2%, a specificity of 89.2%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 7.7%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 95.9%. The rate of secondary procedures was reduced from 23 to 16 with a number needed to treat (NNT) of CSR-guided intraoperative re-excisions of 25. In the subgroup of patients with cCR, the prevalence of positive margins was 10/510 (2.0%), PPV was 1.9%, and the NNT was 85. Conclusion: Positive margins after NACT are rare and CSR has only a low sensitivity to detect them. Thus, the rate of secondary surgeries cannot be significantly reduced by recommending targeted re-excisions, especially in cases with cCR. In summary, CSR after NACT is inadequate for intraoperative margin assessment but remains useful to document removal of the biopsy site clip.

Background: The pretherapeutic assessment of axillary lymph node status is crucial in staging early breast cancer patients, significantly influencing their further treatment and prognosis. According to current guidelines, patients with clinically unsuspicious axillary status regularly undergo a biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), whereby metastasis is detected in up to 20% of cases. In recent years, the use of shear wave elastography (SWE) has been studied as an additional ultrasound tool for the non-invasive assessment of tumors in the breast parenchyma and axillary lymph nodes. Previous studies (examining the axilla in patients) have shown that metastases have significantly higher SWE values than benign nodes. Methods: This study aims to evaluate whether SWE can differentiate between tumor-free and metastatic-affected SLN ex vivo, i.e., by examining the pathological specimen. SWE was performed ex vivo on SLN specimens and compared with final histopathological results. Results: A total of 168 SLNs from 105 patients were measured using ex vivo SWE and subjected to standard histopathological processing. In this group, 17 metastases in 17 patients (16.19%) were detected. Tumor-free SLNs had a mean velocity of 1.33 ± 0.23 m/s, while metastatic nodes showed a mean velocity of 1.35 ± 0.29 m/s (p = 0.724). There was no significant difference in ex vivo SWE between benign and malignant SLNs in this population. Conclusions: Contrary to previous studies, this study did not find SWE effective in differentiating lymph node metastases. Further research is needed to clarify SWE’s potential role in axillary staging.

Purpose: A previous study in our breast unit showed that the diagnostic accuracy of intraoperative specimen radiography and its potential to reduce second surgeries in a cohort of patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were low, which questions the routine use of Conventional specimen radiography (CSR) in this patient group. This is a follow-up study in a larger cohort to further evaluate these findings. Methods: This retrospective study included 376 cases receiving breast-conserving surgery (BCS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) of primary breast cancer. CSR was performed to assess potential margin infiltration and recommend an intraoperative re-excision of any radiologically positive margin. The histological workup of the specimen served as gold standard for the evaluation of the accuracy of CSR and the potential reduction of second surgeries by CSR-guided re-excisions. Results: 362 patients with 2172 margins were assessed. The prevalence of positive margins was 102/2172 (4.7%). CSR had a sensitivity of 37.3%, a specificity of 85.6%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 11.3%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.5%. The rate of secondary procedures was reduced from 75 to 37 with a number needed to treat (NNT) of CSR-guided intraoperative re-excisions of 10. In the subgroup of patients with clinical complete response (cCR), the prevalence of positive margins was 38/1002 (3.8%), PPV was 6.5% and the NNT was 34. Conclusion: This study confirms our previous finding that the rate of secondary surgeries cannot be significantly reduced by CSR-guided intraoperative re-excisions in cases with cCR after NACT. The routine use CSR after NACT is questionable, and alternative tools of intraoperative margin assessment should be evaluated.

Objective: This retrospective cohort study compares surgical outcomes among patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC) after the implementation of a robotic-assisted (RA) surgical program at a tertiary care center. Methods: A total of 122 EC patients who underwent surgery between March 2022 and February 2025 were included. Patients were divided into two cohorts based on the implementation of RA surgery: Group 1 (March 2022–August 2023) and Group 2 (September 2023–February 2025). Data collected included demographics, surgical approach, operative time, hospital stay, completion of staging procedures, and 30-day postoperative complications. Results: RA laparoscopy was used predominantly in Group 2, replacing conventional laparoscopy (CL). Laparotomy was significantly less frequent in group 2 (11.9% vs. 36.4%; p < 0.001). Among patients with FIGO stage I, all patients underwent minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in Cohort 2 (100% vs. 71.9%; p < 0.001). Median hospital stay was significantly shorter in Group 2 (3 days vs. 4 days; p < 0.001). A 30-day mortality occurred in one patient (n = 1) within the total study cohort (0.82%) and was attributed to pulmonary embolism on postoperative day 14 after RA laparoscopy. Rates of Grade ≥3 postoperative complications were similar (7.3% vs. 7.5%), as were wound complications (5.5% vs. 3%). The use of sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping increased significantly in Group 2 (91% vs. 54.5%; p < 0.001). Completion staging procedures were significantly reduced in group 2 (9.1% vs. 0%; p = 0.017). Conclusions: The integration of RA laparoscopy significantly reduced laparotomy rates and hospital stays while increasing SLN mapping. These results support the continued adoption of RA laparoscopy to enhance MIS and improve patient outcomes.

Background: Accurate intraoperative assessment of sentinel lymph node (SLN) status is critical for staging and guiding surgical management in gynaecological malignancies. Frozen-section histopathology remains the gold standard, but it is time-consuming and resource-intensive. Shear-wave elastography (SWE) quantifies tissue stiffness in real time and may offer a rapid alternative. Methods: In this prospective single-centre study, 63 women (median age 62 years) undergoing primary surgery with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for endometrial, cervical, vulvar, or early ovarian carcinoma were enrolled. A total of 172 SLNs were excised, submerged in coupling gel, and scanned ex vivo using a 9 MHz linear probe. Results: A total of 172 SLNs underwent SWE (mean 2.7 nodes/patient). Endometrial primaries accounted for 58% of nodes, mostly retrieved by robotic-assisted surgery (71.8%). Node dimensions were significantly larger in malignant lesions for sonographic (long-axis: 13.02 ± 3.31 mm vs. 10.80 ± 3.28 mm; p = 0.002) and pathological long-axis measurements (11.45 ± 2.83 mm vs. 9.75 ± 2.61 mm; p = 0.004). Mean SWE velocities were similar between groups (1.381 ± 0.307 vs. 1.343 ± 0.236 m/s; p = 0.541). Histopathology identified metastases in 18% of SLNs, comprising macrometastases (7%), micrometastases (5%), and isolated tumour cells (6%). Conclusions: Although ex vivo SWE is rapid, reproducible, and integrates seamlessly into the sterile field, stiffness measurements alone lack sufficient discriminatory power for SLN staging in gynaecological cancers. Future research should focus on three-dimensional SWE, advanced radiomic analyses, and machine-learning algorithms to improve the detection of low-volume metastatic disease.