Factors influencing local relapse and survival and results of salvage treatment after breast-conserving therapy in operable breast cancer EORTC trial 10801 breast conservation compared with mastectomy...

Abstract:  Factors influencing local relapse and survival and results of salvage treatment after breast-conserving therapy in operable breast cancer: EORTC trial 10801, breast conservation compared with mastectomy in TNM stage I and II breast cancer. van Dongen JA, Bartelink H, Fentiman IS, Lerut T, Mignolet F, Olthuis G, van der Schueren E, Sylvester R, Tong D, Winter J, et al. Department of Surgery, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam. A (modified) radical mastectomy (RM) was compared with breast-conserving therapy (BCT) in stage I and stage II breast cancer patients. Treatment of the study arm comprised lumpectomy, axillary clearance and radiotherapy to the breast (50 Gy in 5 weeks external irradiation and a boost with iridium implant of 25 Gy). 902 patients were included. There were 734 TNM stage II patients. Patients with microscopically incomplete excision of the tumour were not excluded. After a median follow-up of 6 years, overall survival and local recurrence rates do not differ significantly between the two study arms. Actuarial survival at 8 years was 73% after RM and 71% after BCT; actuarial local recurrence at 8 years was 9% and 15%, respectively. In the mastectomy group tumour size did not affect local relapse, but after BCT the incidence of local recurrences was higher for tumours of 2-5 cm (16%) than for smaller tumours (7%) (at 8 years, P = 0.08). Results of salvage treatment for local recurrence so far were similar in both the BCT and the mastectomy group. PMID: 1524898 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]