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DG DISPATCH - BREAST CANCER: Radiation After Conservative Surgery Reduces Recurrences By Robert Carlson Special to DG News SAN ANTONIO, TX -- December 15, 1999 -- A study from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, supports the use of radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery, even in good-prognosis breast-cancer patients. Early-stage breast cancer is often treated with breast-conserving surgery, procedures which remove only the tumor and leave the rest of the breast intact. Radiation therapy can be added after surgery to "mop up" any remaining tumor cells. The question has been whether women with small tumors and good prognosis still need radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery. May Lim, MD, gave an update here on a previously published study which compared the experiences of women having breast-conserving surgery alone with women who had conservative surgery with radiation. The 81 patients included all had small "T1" tumors when the study began and the cancer had not spread to other organs. Median age of the women was 66 years. These were considered good-prognosis patients but, after an average follow-up of about 92 months, 23 percent of the women (19 of 81) had a local recurrence of their breast cancer. Two others patients (2 percent) had breast cancer in the opposite breast, one had a recurrence in her lymph nodes and four (5 percent) had metastatic tumors in other organs. Local recurrence occurred in about 35 months. Thus far, nine patients have died, four after developing advanced breast disease and five of unrelated causes. "Even in this highly selected group of patients, there is a substantial and long-term risk of local recurrence following treatment with conservative surgery without radiotherapy or systemic chemotherapy," Dr. Lim concluded. E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version