[Carcinoma in situ of the breast: which treatment?]

From January 1984 to December 1992, twenty-eight patients affected with breast carcinoma in situ were treated with surgery (8 with radical mastectomy, 20 with quadrantectomy) at Umberto I Hospital in Mestre, Italy. The patients with multicentric lesions and treated with quadrantectomy received also radiation therapy. The dose was 50 Gy/25 fractions with 60Co and a boost of 10 Gy to the tumor bed. The mean age of our patients was 55 years (range: 34-74 years). Histology diagnosed lobular carcinoma in situ in 7 cases, intraductal carcinoma in 19 cases and comedocarcinoma in 2 cases. The median and the mean follow-up are 37 and 42 months (range: 24-128), respectively. The eight-year local control and the cause-specific survival rates are 100%. No local relapses have been observed. One patient died, of another neoplastic disease, free from breast disease. We believe that the conservative approach in breast carcinoma in situ, according to literature results and to our personal experience, should be more frequently preferred to radical surgery even in the patients with multicentric lesions.