Frequency of Surgical Clips Placement in Breast Cancer Patients in Southwestern Iran: A Retrospective Study

Background and Objectives Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women. Locoregional treatment of this disease includes surgery and radiotherapy. Placement of surgical clips to determine the tumor bed is very helpful in radiotherapy planning. It seems that in southwest of Iran, surgeons are less familiar with this issue or have not realized its importance, leading to their insufficient use of this technique. Therefore, our study was conducted to determine the frequency of clips placement in breast cancer patients in this region. Subjects and Methods This retrospective study was performed on all women with breast cancer referring to the department of clinical oncology at Golestan Hospital from April 2016 to March 2017. The frequency of clips placement was determined among patients who had undergone breast conserving surgery in this 2-year period. The demographic and clinicopathological data of these patients were reviewed and analyzed. Results Out of a total of 1059 patients with breast cancer, 944 (89.14%) underwent breast-conserving surgery, of whom 89 (8.40%) had undergone surgical clips placement. The mean number of clips was 3, and in 58 patients (65.17%) more than 3 clips were placed. Conclusion Considering the small number of clipped cases in this region (and probably throughout Iran), it is recommended that training workshops be held for surgeons so that they become more familiar with the importance and necessity of surgical clips placement and its technique.