Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026
Single-Port Robotic-assisted Transaxillary Breast-conserving Surgery: A Prospective, Single-arm, Non-randomized Phase IIa Clinical Trial
Published on: August 19, 2025
Breast-conserving surgery for T3/T4 breast cancer: an analysis of 196 patients
Florian Fitzal1, Otto Riedl, Lisa Wutzl
1Department of Surgery, Medical University Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1080 Vienna, Austria. florian.fitzal@meduniwien.ac.at
Introduction:
Breast conservation therapy (BCT) increases quality of life and self-esteem of breast cancer patients. In special cancer centers up to 90% of patients are treated with BCT. T3/T4 breast cancer is one of the few contraindications for BCT. However, retrospective data suggest that BCT may be eligible in selected cases of T3/T4 breast cancer.
Method:
We analyzed retrospectively 196 breast cancer patients (operated between 1995 and 2004) suffering from T3/T4 tumors and compared BCT and radiotherapy with mastectomy in these patients in terms of overall survival (OS), local recurrence free-survival (LRFS) and breast cancer-related death (BCRD).
Result:
Demographic data showed no significant differences in prognostic factors between patients treated with mastectomy compared with BCT. Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated no significant difference for OS, LRFS and BCRD between the two groups.
Discussion:
Our data strongly suggest that BCT with R0 resection followed by radiotherapy is feasible in patients with T3/T4 breast cancer. Prospective studies have to be performed to further investigate this issue.
