title: Conservative treatment of breast cancer: its evolution.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over recent decades, breast carcinoma surgery has witnessed a considerable evolution. The extent of surgery undertaken has progressively reduced, leading to less disfigurement and a significant improvement in quality of life, thereby offering women considerable motivation to seek early diagnosis. From an oncological perspective, outcome was found to be equally effective, and this key observation provided us with significant impetus to investigate the effects of reducing the radiotherapy field.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present the achievements made so far in the conservative treatment of breast carcinoma, based on experiences at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and, prior to 1994, at the Milan Cancer Institute.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Conservative surgery of breast carcinoma, both in the breast and in the axillary nodes, has yielded very good results in terms of overall survival and impact on quality of life. The reduction of the radiation field, conducted in our Institute by means of electron intraoperative radiotherapy (ELIOT), is currently the subject of evaluation via a randomised trial.
authors.affiliation: Division of Breast Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. alberto.luini@ieo.it
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luini
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gatti
authors.forename: Viviana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Galimberti
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zurrida
authors.forename: Mattia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Intra
authors.forename: Oreste
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gentilini
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paganelli
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Viale
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Orecchia
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veronesi
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Veronesi
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental / Q000639:trends*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000639:trends; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D013534:Survival