[Auchincloss's mode versus Patey's mode in early breast cancer]

On the assumption that an early breast cancer is tumor under 1.0 centimeter in diameter, sixty five cases of the early disease were picked out from 970 patients who had breast cancer during 20 years from 1961 to 1980. The former were 6.7 percentage among them. Only five cases (7.6%) among patients with such early breast cancer had metastasis in the axillary lymph nodes, except lymph nodes of the level III group. On the other hand, ten year survival after modified radical mastectomy for early breast cancer was 93 percentage. An inquiry of the atrophy of the major pectoral muscles after modified radical mastectomy revealed that it was rather fewer after Auchincloss's mode than after Patey's. In conclusion, the two facts suggested that surgery of Auchincloss's type was the most available for such early breast cancer.