Three articles in this issue of the Journal advance our understandingof the treatment of early breast cancer. In one, the advancecomes in the form of reassurance about the quality of a studywhose results have already been reported. The results of a clinicaltrial (Protocol B-06) conducted by the National Surgical AdjuvantBreast and Bowel Project (NSABP), reported in the Journal in19851 and 1989,2 had been interpreted as showing that lumpectomyfollowed by irradiation yielded results about as good as thoseof mastectomy. The results of this large randomized trial werein general agreement with those of . . . [Full Text of this Article]