[Non-mutilating treatment of breast cancer: survival and recurrence]

During the last decades considerable progress was made in medical and biomedical techniques, enabling early diagnosis and a better understanding of how tumors develop. At the same time, treatment by surgery has changed, becoming less and less mutilating. In order to analyze loco-regional relapses and factors of prognosis, we studied 420 patients representing 415 cases of breast cancer, all of whom received breast-preservation therapy. The case histories were followed from 1 to 17 1/2 years, with an average observation period of 4 years. The majority of patients underwent enlarged tumorectomy, generally accompanied by axillary dissection and by radiotherapy. Based on an overall study of our patients, actuarial survival was 87% after 5 years and 65% after 10 years. Not taking into consideration patients with tumors at stages pT3 and pT4 recovery was 90% after 5 and 67% after 10 years. We have attempted to demonstrate that this survival rate, as well as the occurrence of a relapse, vary according to different parameters, such as size and invasion of the axillary glands.