Conservative treatment of breast cancer: A trial in progress at the cancer institute of Milan

In 1973, a clinical trial was started in patients with stage I breast cancer comparing conservative treatment consisting of partial mastectomy plus axillary dissection plus postoperative radiotherapy to the involved breast with conventional radical mastectomy. Patients with positive lymph nodes in the partial mastectomy group have been further randomized to receive either additional radiotherapy to the supraclavicular and internal mammary node areas or no additional radiotherapy. By June 1976, 302 patients had entered the trial. To date there are no significant differences between the conservative and radical surgical treatment groups in regard to local cancer recurrence, the incidence of distant metastases or the development of cancer in the contralateral breast, but it is too early to have obtained meaningful results.