I am resident in Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Delhi, doing surgical oncology residency DRNB from Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Delhi. I got the thesis topic on breast, so kindly suggest me easy topic, thesis topic that I can do in breast topic.
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ICMR National Cancer Registry Programme breast cancer clinical research India surgical oncology thesis 2025
For a DRNB surgical oncology thesis, the easiest breast topics are usually single-center observational studies based on routine operative, pathology, and follow-up records. Avoid topics requiring costly molecular tests, long survival follow-up, or randomization unless your unit already has a protocol and high case volume.
Best practical topic
“Incidence and risk factors for seroma formation following modified radical mastectomy in patients with breast carcinoma: a prospective observational study.”
Why this is a good choice
- Pure surgical oncology topic
- Very common operation, so recruitment should be straightforward
- Outcome is objective and easy to record
- Needs only routine clinical data
- Follow-up is short, typically until drain removal and at 2-4 weeks
- Can lead to a publishable manuscript if data collection is clean
Suggested objectives
- To determine the incidence of clinically significant seroma after MRM.
- To identify factors associated with seroma formation, such as:
- age, BMI, diabetes, hypertension
- neoadjuvant chemotherapy
- breast and axillary dissection extent
- number of lymph nodes removed
- drain output and day of drain removal
- drain duration
- surgical-site infection
- To assess the effect of seroma on outpatient visits, aspiration requirement, infection, and delay in adjuvant treatment.
Simple methodology
- Design: Prospective observational cohort
- Population: Consecutive women undergoing MRM for breast carcinoma
- Sample size: Ideally 100-150 patients. Your statistician should finalize this based on expected seroma rate and feasible recruitment period.
- Primary outcome: Clinically significant seroma requiring aspiration after drain removal, or a definition finalized before recruitment.
- Follow-up: At drain removal, then approximately 1 and 4 weeks postoperatively.
Make the outcome definition unambiguous in the protocol. For example, distinguish asymptomatic fluid collection on ultrasound from a symptomatic seroma requiring aspiration.
Other easy and acceptable breast thesis topics
| Priority | Proposed title | Design | Why it is easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clinicopathological profile and patterns of axillary nodal metastasis in operable breast cancer: a retrospective study | Retrospective | Data are usually available in pathology and operative records; no patient follow-up required. |
| 2 | Discordance between core needle biopsy and final surgical histopathology in breast carcinoma: a retrospective audit | Retrospective | Highly feasible if pathology records are organized; clinically useful. |
| 3 | Impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on pathological complete response and axillary nodal downstaging in locally advanced breast cancer | Retrospective or prospective | Relevant in a tertiary cancer center; needs adequate NAC case volume. |
| 4 | Predictors of pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer | Retrospective | Uses routine receptor status, grade, clinical stage, regimen, and surgical pathology. |
| 5 | Surgical-site infection following breast cancer surgery: incidence, microbiological profile, and associated risk factors | Prospective observational | Short follow-up and clinically relevant. |
| 6 | Correlation of clinical, radiological, and pathological tumor size in breast carcinoma after neoadjuvant chemotherapy | Retrospective | Good if imaging reports and pathology records are consistently available. |
| 7 | Factors associated with delay in initiation of adjuvant therapy after breast cancer surgery | Retrospective | Simple endpoints, but requires reliable treatment timelines. |
| 8 | Quality-of-life and functional outcome after modified radical mastectomy: a short-term prospective study | Prospective | Good patient-centered topic, but needs validated questionnaires and more follow-up effort. |
My recommendation based on feasibility
If you want the easiest retrospective thesis
“Clinicopathological profile and predictors of axillary lymph node metastasis in operable breast cancer: a retrospective study.”
Potential predictors:
- age
- tumor size
- tumor quadrant
- histological grade
- lymphovascular invasion
- ER, PR, HER2, Ki-67 status
- multifocality
- clinical nodal status
Advantages: no prospective consent in many institutional settings if the ethics committee permits record review, no follow-up loss, and fast data collection.
Disadvantage: It may be considered a conventional topic unless you formulate a focused question, for example:
“Predictors of high axillary nodal burden in clinically node-negative operable breast cancer: a single-institution retrospective study.”
This may be particularly suitable only if sentinel node biopsy and axillary data are reliably recorded.
If you want the best surgical prospective thesis
“Incidence and determinants of seroma after modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer: a prospective observational study.”
This is the topic I would choose if you need something realistic, surgical, short-duration, and relatively publication-friendly.
If your unit has many patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy
“Predictors of breast and axillary pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced breast cancer.”
Important endpoints:
- breast pCR
- axillary pCR
- ypT stage and ypN stage
- association with molecular subtype, especially HER2-positive and triple-negative disease
- clinical-radiological response versus final pathology
This is more academically attractive than a seroma study but depends heavily on a sufficient number of complete NAC records and standardized pathology reporting.
Topics I would avoid for an “easy” thesis
- Overall survival or disease-free survival studies, because follow-up needs to be long and complete.
- Randomized trials of drain duration, quilting sutures, flap fixation, or antibiotic duration, unless your department already supports a trial protocol.
- Breast reconstruction outcomes if the volume is limited.
- Oncoplastic breast surgery outcomes if procedures are heterogeneous.
- Genomic assays, circulating tumor DNA, costly biomarkers, or advanced imaging studies.
- Rare groups such as male breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer, or occult primary breast carcinoma, unless you have a long retrospective database.
Practical steps before finalizing
- Ask your guide how many MRM, breast-conserving surgery, sentinel node biopsy, and neoadjuvant chemotherapy cases are performed annually.
- Check whether the electronic or paper records reliably include operative notes, drain charts, pathology, receptor status, imaging, and treatment dates.
- Restrict the study period and population early. For example, “all consecutive MRM patients over 18 months.”
- Frame one clear primary outcome. Do not make too many primary objectives.
- Discuss the chosen title with your biostatistician before ethics submission, especially sample-size calculation and planned regression analysis.
Breast cancer remains a major cancer-control priority in India, as reflected in the National Cancer Registry Programme report. For background framing, standard surgical references also cover breast-conserving surgery, axillary surgery, complications, and oncoplastic approaches, including Fischer’s Mastery of Surgery and Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery.
Recent evidence has also focused on surgical decision-making in defined breast-cancer subgroups, including an older-patient surgery systematic review, which reinforces the value of focused, clinically answerable institutional studies rather than broad descriptive work.
Best final title to take to your guide:
Incidence and risk factors for clinically significant seroma formation after modified radical mastectomy for breast carcinoma: a prospective observational study.
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