Conservation surgery and radiation therapy in the treatment of operable breast cancer.

The combination of conservation surgery and radiation therapy for favorable breast cancer is gaining acceptance as an alternative to radical mastectomy. Presented here is a review of the local and regional tumor control and survival results of several authors, as well as a comparison of 1073 patients with clinically favorable breast cancer treated at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital between 1955 and 1980, 345 of whom have been treated with conservation surgery and irradiation and 728 of whom have been treated with radical or modified radical mastectomy alone. The locoregional recurrence in the patients treated with an intact breast is 4.9%, and 5.6% in patients treated with radical or modified radical mastectomy; there is no significant difference in the 10-year disease-free survival rates between the two groups. A detailed analysis of the location and timing of recurrences and the incidence of contralateral breast cancer is presented.