[Current standards in the treatment of breast cancer]

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignoma in female individuals: more than 10 out 100 females suffer from the disease. The understanding of breast cancer as a primarily local disease has undergone a fundamental change in the last few decades. While throughout most of the previous century breast cancer was still mainly conceived of as a predominantly local disease, the radical nature of surgery can now be reduced to a minimum by the use of breast conserving procedures and axillary sentinel lymph node excision. The systemic use of cytostatic and endocrine therapeutic modalities has simultaneously provided a major overall survival benefit for patients treated in accordance with current therapeutic standards. The multidisciplinary treatment challenge of breast cancer comprises nowadays surgery, systemic treatment and radiotherapy and aims to a more individualized therapy.