Comparing cancer detection rates of patients undergoing short term follow-up vs routine follow-up after benign breast biopsies, is follow-up needed?

Purpose To compare cancer rates after benign breast biopsies between patients with short term imaging follow-up (STFU) and those with routine follow-up (RFU). Materials & methods Retrospective review of benign stereotactic, US or DCE-MRI breast biopsies. Results Of 580 lesions, 192 (33%) had STFU, and 388 (67%) had RFU. For US and mammographic detected lesions, there is no difference in cancer rates between the STFU (1 cancer, n = 148) and the RFU group (0 cancer, n = 365) (p = 0.29). There were 2 cancers in the STFU group versus 0 in the RFU DCE-MRI group (p = 0.54). Conclusion Our results support RFU after benign ultrasound and stereotactic breast biopsies.