The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
PreviousPrevious
Volume 347:1227-1232 October 17, 2002 Number 16
NextNext

Twenty-Year Follow-up of a Randomized Study Comparing Breast-Conserving Surgery with Radical Mastectomy for Early Breast Cancer
Umberto Veronesi, M.D., Natale Cascinelli, M.D., Luigi Mariani, M.D., Marco Greco, M.D., Roberto Saccozzi, M.D., Alberto Luini, M.D., Marisel Aguilar, M.D., and Ettore Marubini, Ph.D.

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF
-PDA Full Text
-PowerPoint Slide Set

Commentary
-Editorial
 by Morrow, M.

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background We conducted 20 years of follow-up of women enrolled in a randomized trial to compare the efficacy of radical (Halsted) mastectomy with that of breast-conserving surgery.

Methods From 1973 to 1980, 701 women with breast cancers measuring no more than 2 cm in diameter were randomly assigned to undergo radical mastectomy (349 patients) or breast-conserving surgery (quadrantectomy) followed by radiotherapy to the ipsilateral mammary tissue (352 patients). After 1976, patients in both groups who had positive axillary nodes also received adjuvant chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil.

Results Thirty women in the group that underwent breast-conserving therapy had a recurrence of tumor in the same breast, whereas eight women in the radical-mastectomy group had local recurrences (P<0.001). The crude cumulative incidence of these events was 8.8 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, after 20 years. In contrast, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the rates of contralateral-breast carcinomas, distant metastases, or second primary cancers. After a median follow-up of 20 years, the rate of death from all causes was 41.7 percent in the group that underwent breast-conserving surgery and 41.2 percent in the radical-mastectomy group (P=1.0). The respective rates of death from breast cancer were 26.1 percent and 24.3 percent (P=0.8).

Conclusions The long-term survival rate among women who undergo breast-conserving surgery is the same as that among women who undergo radical mastectomy. Breast-conserving surgery is therefore the treatment of choice for women with relatively small breast cancers.


Source Information

From the Department of Senology, European Institute of Oncology (U.V., A.L., M.A.); the Departments of Senology (N.C., M.G., R.S.) and Biometrics (L.M.), Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori; and the Institute of Medical Statistics and Biometry, Università degli Studi (E.M.) — all in Milan, Italy.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Veronesi at the European Institute of Oncology, 435 Via G. Ripamonti, I-20141 Milan, Italy, or at umberto.veronesi{at}ieo.it.

Full Text of this Article


This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  TERMS OF USE  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.