Can any breast skin thickening be staged as T4?

Abstract

Data analysis showed that many diagnostic issues in breast cancer patients with skin involvement are not systematized. In some cases when the tumor is small and skin involvement symptoms are minimal ("local" skin edema), should this category of patients be considered as patients with non-inflammatory skin involvement breast cancer? Current research confirms the presence of skin involvement has much less prognostic value than, for example, tumor size or lymph node metastases, and the surgical term "unresectable" may not always be adequate. In addition, clinical data often do not correspond to pathological data, which also complicates the staging and leads to "overtreatment" of such patients. Thus, further research is needed to identify categories of breast cancer (patients with skin involvement similar in prognosis, as well as to individualize approaches to local and systemic treatment.