Survival in patients with invasive breast cancers less than one centimeter

This article describes our study of the long-term outcomes for 115 women with minimally invasive breast cancer (i.e. < 1 cm) who were treated at Charleston Area Medical Center from 1973-1988. Our goals in initiating this study were to find out whether or not minimally invasive breast cancer (MIBC) is curable by local modalities and if there are subgroups with MIBC that have a lower survival rate. We conclude that the curability of MIBC is quite high with effective locoregional treatment. However, even in patient with such small tumors, 20% will recur. Additional markers are needed to differentiate high and low-risk patients in order to select who might benefit from adjuvant systemic therapy.