Comparing Survival Differences between Patients Undergoing Breast-Conserving Therapy Versus Total Mastectomy as a...

The aim of this study was to evaluate trends in the total mastectomy (TM) rates in patients with early stage breast cancer (BC) undergoing surgery first at a single institution and compare overall (OS), distant metastasis-free (DMFS), local-regional recurrence (LRR), and BC-specific (BCSS) survival between lumpectomy followed by radiation (breast-conserving therapy (BCT)) and TM.

A total of 8967 women with clinical stage T1-2, N0-1, M0 BC who underwent upfront surgery from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2014 were included. TM rates were evaluated. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) based on propensity scores was used to remove confounding in the survival models in the whole cohort and subset analyses (different stage combined with different hormone receptor status).

TM rates increased from 39.7 to 59.9% (P < 0.001) in patients aged ≤ 50 years from 2005 to 2013. At a median follow-up of 6.1 years, after IPW adjustment, patients undergoing BCT or TM with radiation had slightly worse BCSS and similar OS, DMFS, and LRR rates compared with patients who underwent TM alone in the whole cohort. In subset analyses, after IPW adjustment, there were no significant survival differences in OS, BCSS, and DMFS between patients who underwent TM without radiation versus BCT. Among patients with triple-negative BC and stage I disease, those who underwent BCT had a lower LRR rate than those undergoing TM (relative risk (RR), 0.5; P = 0.02).

Our study shows that BCT and TM are equivalent as an initial surgical strategy for patients with early stage breast cancer. These data may help physicians in decision-making for patients who are candidates for either TM or BCT.