A procedure called ductal lavage is not an effective diagnostic test for breast cancer, investigators report.

Ductal lavage involves irrigating the milk ducts - specifically, the ducts that yield fluid - and looking for cancerous cells in the recovered irrigating solution.

“The findings of our study do not support the premise that ductal lavage is an effective tool for the detection of breast cancer, at least in women who require mastectomy for their disease,” Dr. Seema A. Khan from the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center in Chicago and colleagues warn in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The team performed the procedure just prior to mastectomy on 44 breasts from 32 women with known breast cancer and on 8 breasts from 7 women undergoing preventative mastectomy because of their high risk of developing the disease.

Cells could be detected in only 14 of 38 cancerous breasts with fluid-yielding ducts, and only five of these produced a lavage specimen with malignant cells. The other nine showed only benign or mildly abnormal cells, the researchers report.

They conclude that ductal lavage often does not detect cancer “even when cancer-containing ducts are lavaged.”

Therefore, they say, “Ductal lavage should not be recommended to high-risk women as a technique to detect cancer earlier than imaging modalities.”

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, October 20, 2004.