The guy's trial of treatments of “early” breast cancer

Abstract

Abstract Between 1961 and 1971, 370 patients with stages I and II breast cancer were assigned by random sample to receive either wide local excision or standard radical mastectomy. Patients in both groups received postoperative radiotherapy which, admittedly, would be considered less than optimal nowadays for patients with an intact axilla. Follow‐up has been conducted for 5 years in all patients and for 10 years in about half of them. Wide local excision was followed by a higher incidence of local cancer recurrence. However, there was no significant difference between the 2 operations in 5‐and 10‐year survival. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the 2 treatment groups in the incidence of distant metastases after 10 years, although patients with stage II cancer had a significantly higher incidence of distant metastases after 5 years (but not after 10 years) .