Local control by breast-conserving surgery with nipple resection.

s. Local control was compared between patients who had undergone breast-conserving therapy with and without nipple resection. We explored whether there was any difference in local control between the two treatment methods for patients with early breast cancer. A total of 333 women with breast cancer, who had undergone breast-conserving therapy between 1991 and 2002, were included in this study. Surgery consisted of a wide local excision of the primary tumor with a 2-cm free margin as the minimum distance. When the tumor was located under the nipple or close to the nipple, breast-conserving surgery with nipple resection was selected. A total of 320 patients received breast-conserving surgery without nipple resection and radiation therapy (BCT) and 13 patients breast-conserving surgery with nipple resection and radiation therapy (BCT-NR). There were no significant differences in age, tumor size, nodal status, clinical stage, ER status, histological type or surgical margin status between the two groups. The surgical margin was positive in 55 (17.2%) out of 320 patients in the BCT group and in one (7.7%) out of 13 patients in the BCT-NR group. There was no significant difference in the breast-free survival between the two groups. In conclusion, breast-conserving surgery with nipple resection and radiation therapy may be the treatment of choice for early breast cancer patients with the tumor located under the nipple or very close to the areola. Breast-conserving therapy is accepted as a standard treatment for early breast cancer. Ipsilateral breast recurrence is one of the serious problems for breast-conserving therapy, and thus complete resection of cancer cells is important to prevent ipsilateral breast recurrence (1-3). In the case of tumors close to the nipple, achieving complete resection is difficult. Breast- conserving surgery with nipple resection was performed in patients who had invasive cancer or intraductal cancer components close to the nipple (4). In this study, local control of breast-conserving surgery accompanied by nipple resection and radiation therapy (BCT-NR) was compared with that of breast-conserving surgery and radiation therapy (BCT).