[Selective therapeutic de-escalation in early stage breast cancer]

The survival of patients with breast cancer has improved considerably thanks to adjuvant radiotherapy and systemic treatments. Due to the potential adverse events associated with these treatments, a de-escalation effort was undertaken concerning surgery and more recently the adjuvant treatments. Conservative breast surgery and the avoidance of axillary dissection were possible for the majority of the patients without detrimental effect on survival. New radiotherapy techniques and the consideration of cancer biology allowed to better protect the peripheral organs and even to avoid treatment in certain low-risk patients. The refinement of prognostic and predictive criteria helped reducing the use of chemotherapy and adapting the duration of endocrine therapy to the risk.