SIMPLE VERSUS RADICAL MASTECTOMY: Preliminary Report of the Cardiff Breast Trial

Abstract By the end of 1972, 230 patients with breast cancer had been admitted to a clinical trial of simple versus radical mastectomy at centres in Cardiff and London. In both groups adjuvant local radiotherapy was given only if pectoralnode or axillary-node histology indicated metastatic disease. Comment on disease-free survival would be premature. However, there is nothing in the preliminary data to suggest that a conservative surgical approach is inferior to a radical one.