Locally advanced breast cancer: radiotherapy alone versus surgery and radiotherapy

From 1976 through 1984 46 patients with locally advanced breast cancer were treated by either radiotherapy alone or by combination of surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. Eleven of the 21 patients treated by radiotherapy alone had a local or regional recurrence, while no recurrences occurred in the combined treatment group. From this study it was concluded that "locally advanced" breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and that further study concerning the role of surgery is justifiable for a selected subgroup of patients with non-inflammatory resectable tumours (meeting the criteria of "locally advanced" breast cancer).