Local and distant recurrences -- a comparative study on conservative and radical surgery for breast cancer

The treatment of breast cancer has evolved over the past 40 years. Followed by radiotherapy, conservative surgical procedures are options increasingly more preferred by surgeons and patients. This paper aims to highlight comparative aspects of local and distant recurrence in patients who had radical or conservative surgery for breast cancer. We performed a retrospective study between January, 2005 - July 2013, that included 477 breast cancer patients from the Regional Institute of Oncology Iasi, who were evaluated by imaging in the Radiology Clinic,Hospital "St. Spiridon", Iasi. We included in the study patients in curable stages 0, I and II; 248 (52 %) patients had radical surgery and 229 (48 %) patients had conservative surgery. We used the ultrasound scan, mammography, CT and MRI, that allowed diagnosis, pretherapeutic staging and diagnosing of the loco-regional and distant recurrences. Local and distant recurrences were higher in patients with conservative surgery(86 recurrences), than in patients who had radical surgery (55 recurrences). Local recurrences are more common in younger individuals and in patients treated with conservative surgery and radiotherapy, than in patients with radical mastectomy.The most common metastases are located in the bone, liver and lung.