Intraductal carcinoma (DCIS) of the breast. Risk-adapted tumor surgery with axillary lymphadenectomy?

Between 1963 and April 1994, 3823 women were treated both at the Universitäts-Frauenklinik Berlin-Charlottenburg as well as at the I. Frauenklinik der Universität München, for a malignant condition of the breast gland. 161 of these (4.2%) exhibited an intraductal carcinoma stage pTis, whilst 99 (61.5%) were axillary lymphadenectomised. During the observation time-span of up to 24 years, 9 patients (5.6%) developed local recurrence. In neither patients of the group with axillary nor without axillary dissection could a regional recurrence be observed within this period. Also, a generalisation of this condition was not recorded in any patient. On the basis of our own results and those from the literature we postulate that, under the auspices of a risk adapted tumor surgery, axillary lymphadenectomy is no longer necessary under certain conditions in non-invasive breast carcinoma.