[Towards more conservative surgical and radiation therapy of breast cancer]

Surgery and radiation therapy in breast cancer aim to minimize the risk of disease relapse in the breast, chest wall or lymph node regions. Relapses cause distress for the patients and worsen the survival rates. The risk of relapse has decreased considerably during the last ten years. The improved standard of surgical treatment brought about by centralized care, new techniques of radiotherapy as well as the more widely applied and more effective adjuvant drug therapy underlie this favorable development. The extent of surgical therapy and indications of radiotherapy require continuous evaluation in order to avoid prolonged morbidity.