Breast cancer concepts.

Surgery is the primary treatment for early breast cancer. Several studies have shown that routine postoperative radiation therapy does not increase patient survival. Chemotherapy is currently recommended as an adjuvant to mastectomy in patients with positive axillary nodes. Patients who have recurrent disease and tumors that are hormone-receptor-negative, or tumors that are unresponsive and hormone-receptor-positive, are receiving significant survival benefits from combination chemotherapy.