[Biology and surgery: a bound pair or merely a couple of disciplines? (2)]

Carcinoma of the breast, to our way of thinking, appears to be capable of providing what is virtually a master key to the interpretation of surgical oncological pathology. In the wake of the acquisitions made in this field--not always as a result of the initiative of the surgeon - a definite process of revision of the age-old concept of surgical radicality is underway, albeit in a somewhat surreptitious manner. Oncological surgery is clearly passing through a difficult phase, almost a crisis of identity, and, in the authors' opinion, may to some extent come back into its own, albeit only after a great deal of painstaking effort, by adopting a "biological" approach with greater respect for the morpho-functional integrity of the patient, who must no longer be viewed as merely the victim of disease, but rather as the prime mover of the disease itself.