Mammary carcinoma--multidisciplinary treatment with bilateral mastectomy and immediate reconstruction

The classical concepts pertaining to the natural history of mammary carcinoma and its treatment must be reviewed if survival rate is to be improved. By the time diagnosis is established, a fair amount of cases of carcinoma of the breast present distant, clinically undetectable micrometastases, which will not be affected by local therapy (surgery or radiation). Increasing evidence shows that mammary carcinoma nowadays must be looked upon as a diffuse disease affecting both breasts. Postoperative radiation does not improve the 5- and 10-year survival rates and has a negative effect upon the immunological defense of the patient. Immunology plays an important role in the evolution and cure of the patient with carcinoma of the breast. The mutilation produced by radical or ultraradical mastectomy may throw the patient into mental depression which, as a consequence, may decrease the immunological competence of the patient. Multiple drug chemotherapy, started at the time of surgery and continued for several months thereafter, may kill micrometastases. Preventive immunotherapy seems to be beneficial to the patient in attempting control of metastases.