[Conservative therapy for early-stage breast cancer]

An evaluation of the data on the treatment of 298 cases of breast cancer (stages IIa and IIb) showed that a reduced frequency of loco-regional recurrences, after post-operative irradiation as a component of conservative therapy, was followed by improvement in quality of life. This was particularly apparent in patients with pT2pN1 tumors. It was also found that after extended dissection of axillary lymph nodes at all three levels, a dose of 50 Gy was sufficient without additional irradiation of the cicatrix. Nor was it necessary to expose the axillary area in cases of three or less lymph node recurrences provided that at least 6 resected nodes were studied histologically. Following conservative therapy, 5-year survival was 97%, while relapse-free survival--82%.