Dear Colleagues,

Breast cancer is the most common neoplasia in females, affecting around one out of nine women during their life. Over the years, the diagnostic pathways have changed from a palpable evident breast lesion to what is nowadays considered as locally advanced breast cancer in non-palpable lesions. The implementation of breast cancer screening programs and the advent of digital mammography have led to the increased detection of early-stage breast cancers. The progress of treatments and higher incidence of early breast cancer diagnosis have led to a significantly reduction in mastectomy and axillary lymph nodes dissection, with increasing use of minimally invasive surgery. Despite the use of increasingly conservative treatments, survival rates and disease-free survival have nevertheless increased. The treatments used have transitioned from mastectomy to lumpectomy for breast surgery and from lymphadenectomy to lymph node sentinel biopsy, until its omission in some cases of early-stage cancer.

On the other hand, diagnosis at increasingly earlier stages has led to the diagnosis of small carcinomas in situ, and the treatment of these has been considered by some investigators to be overtreatment.

The aim of this Special issue is to evaluate the appropriate diagnostic pathways and option treatments for early breast cancer. Moreover, of interest for the Special Issue are the cases of omission of the sentinel lymph node, axillary dissection or omission of surgical intervention and any optional treatments.

The Special Issue will consider the following types of articles: editorials, review articles, original articles, case reports if associated with literature reviews and rapid communications.

Dr. Marco Pellicciaro
Guest Editor

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• early breast cancer
• conservative breast surgery
• omitting sentinel lymph node biopsy
• sentinel lymph node biopsy
• vacuum-assisted breast lesion excision
• in situ breast cancer