[Treatment of tumors of the breast less than 3 cm in diameter]

In many cases of breast cancer mammectomy can be an excessive treatment. Conservative treatments, such as radical radiotherapy alone or combined with tumorectomy, have proved oncologically effective. All retrospective studies and several prospective randomized studies have yielded local control and survival values that were not significantly different in patients treated by maiming radical surgery and in patients treated with conservative techniques, with satisfactory cosmetic and functional results. A critical study of reasons for failure of conservative treatments, taking into account mostly the size and multicentric character of the tumour, shows that, with the exception of tumours developed in small breasts or in particular sites suggesting a high risk of extension to the skin, the chest wall or the lymph nodes, tumours less than 3 cm wide are a good indication of conservative treatment.