ArticleAnnals of surgical oncology2026
Reassessing the Role of Regular Physical Examination in Post-treatment Breast Cancer Surveillance.
Article in Annals of surgical oncology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- ASO Author Reflections: Reexamining Physical Examination in Modern Breast Cancer Survivorship.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRoutine provider-performed physical examinations remain a standard element of breast cancer survivorship despite increasing evidence that diagnostic yield is limited. With growing survivorship populations and mounting demands on oncology services, reassessment of the value of this practice is warranted. This study sought to evaluate the diagnostic yield and prognostic relevance of surveillance physical exams.
methodsA retrospective review was conducted of women with breast cancer treated between January 2019 and December 2023 at a single tertiary center. Surgical oncology survivorship visits >90 days postoperatively were analyzed. Recurrence events were categorized by initial detection modality: provider-performed physical examination, patient-reported, screening imaging, or symptom-prompted non-breast imaging.
resultsAmong 3337 patients, 131 recurrences (3.9%) occurred after a median of 20 months. Patients collectively attended 12,840 survivorship visits; only eight recurrences (6.1% of all recurrences; 0.06% of examinations) were first detected by physical examination. By comparison, 32 (24.4%) were patient-reported, 38 (29.0%) were detected on screening imaging, and 53 (40.5%) were identified by non-breast diagnostic imaging. When stratified by detection method, exam-detected recurrences were evenly divided between locoregional and combined locoregional/distant disease, whereas patient-reported and screening-detected recurrences were predominantly locoregional, at 72% and 92%, respectively.
conclusionsBreast and chest wall examinations accounted for a small proportion of recurrence detections despite thousands of survivorship visits annually. Most clinically meaningful recurrences were identified by imaging or patient self-report. These findings support survivorship strategies that prioritize imaging adherence and structured symptom assessment, with less emphasis on routine physical examination as a primary detection modality.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.