Conservative management of breast carcinoma. The Créteil experience.

The results of conservative management of breast carcinoma are presented. The disease free survival for patients with T1 lesions was 84 per cent at 5 years, 76 per cent at 7 years and 65 per cent at 10 years, for T2 75, 71 and 64 per cent, and for T3 65, 51 and 45 per cent. The proportion of breast conserved amongst the patients free of disease at 10 years was 94 per cent for T1, 93 per cent for T2 and 80 per cent for patients with T3 lesions. The cosmetic results were very good for T1 lesions, good for T2 and quite good for T3 lesions. Up to 1981 a simple tumorectomy was carried out in most of the T1 lesions and some of the T2 lesions, followed by radical irradiation. Most of the T2 and T3 lesions were exclusively treated with radical irradiation. In an attempt to improve the cosmetic results, since 1981, the indications for tumorectomy were extended to include some of the T2 lesions, and when possible also some of the T3 lesions, where a tumorectomy is performed before or after irradiation, together with a limited axillary dissection.