Intraductal approach to breast cancer: the role of mammary ductoscopy.

Mammary ductoscopy is a recent advance enabling direct visualisation and sampling of human mammary ducts using a micro endoscope. The majority of pre malignant and malignant changes in the breast arise from the epithelium lining the duct lobular unit, and access to this region by ductoscopy has the potential to revolutionise breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. The ability to sample ductal epithelium may allow identification of early malignant and pre-malignant cytological changes and assist surgical excision, facilitating diagnosis of non palpable cancer before detection on current imaging modalities. Presently, there are three main indications for ductoscopy in clinical practice viz. determining extent of resection for breast cancer, assessment of high risk individuals and in the management of patients with pathological nipple discharge. Our initial experience with ductoscopy in patients with nipple discharge undergoing surgery has been rewarding. Ductoscopy was feasible in 92% of patients. Abnormal findings on ductoscopy were associated with DCIS in 37% and DCIS with early invasive breast cancer in 21%, while normal ductoscopy correlated with a normal pathological assessment.