Impact of surgery for early-stage invasive breast cancer

This study aimed to evaluate patients treated for early stage breast cancer in terms of overall survival and recurrence risks. Among patients with early-stage breast cancer; clinical outcomes more than 10 years after diagnosis did not differ between breast-conserving therapy plus radiation or mastectomy plus radiation versus mastectomy alone.

Patients with early-stage breast cancer have the option of mastectomy as treatment. This is the surgical removal of both breasts. Another choice is breast conserving surgery (BCS, removal of the tumor and surrounding tissue) followed by radiation (RT). BCS has been shown in other studies to increase overall survival or breast cancer-specific survival as compared to mastectomy. 

It is unclear if BCS and RT, or mastectomy and RT, or mastectomy alone has superior overall survival or recurrence rates. 

This study included 2762 women diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer. These patients were followed up for an average of 11.9 years. 74.2% of patients underwent BCT and radiotherapy; 10.3% had a mastectomy and radiotherapy, and 15.6% had mastectomy alone.

Compared to patients treated with mastectomy alone, patients treated with BCT and RT showed improved overall survival, but this was not statistically significant. There was no difference in recurrence risks. For patients treated with MT and RT, there were no differences in overall survival or recurrence risks.

This study concluded that among patients with early-stage breast cancer; clinical outcomes more than 10 years after diagnosis did not differ between BCT plus RT or mastectomy plus RT versus mastectomy alone.