Conservative treatment of breast cancer: its evolution.
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.
Luini
Alberto
A
Division of Breast Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. alberto.luini@ieo.it
Gatti
Giovanna
G
Galimberti
Viviana
V
Zurrida
Stefano
S
Intra
Mattia
M
Gentilini
Oreste
O
Paganelli
Giovanni
G
Viale
Giuseppe
G
Orecchia
Roberto
R
Veronesi
Paolo
P
Veronesi
Umberto
U
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