[Surgical and adjuvant therapy of breast cancer]

This is a report on 512 patients operated on for primary breast cancer in 1988 and 1989 at the Central Institute of Cancer Research in Berlin-Buch. Most patients were postmenopausal (52%), 17.7% were aged 45 to 49 years. The average duration of the symptoms was 6.1 months. 45.4% of all the tumours were located in the upper outer quadrant, 47.3% in the right and 52.7% in the left breast. Clinical evaluation and mammography had a sensitivity of 89%, 93.7% respectively. Invasive ductal carcinomas were histologically proven in 319 cases, less frequently (n = 118) invasive lobular tumours. Predominant surgical procedures were the quadrantectomy with axillary dissection (33%) and the modified radical mastectomy according to Auchincloss-Madden (25.5%). In the case of medially/centrally located tumours and axillary lymph node involvement greater than or equal to 4 nodes independent of the tumour site we performed the IMN-biopsy in 129 patients. The majority of the premenopausal node positive patients received adjuvant chemotherapy (94.4%), postmenopausal node positive patients with positive ER received adjuvant tamoxifen. Postoperative irradiation indicated was applied in 25 patients.