Limited surgery with or without radiotherapy for early breast carcinoma.

Between January 1971 and December 1978, 117 consecutive patients with unilateral early stage carcinoma of the breast were treated with limited surgery, with or without the addition of postoperative radiotherapy. Local excision alone was found to be inadequate treatment for T1 and T2 carcinoma of the breast. Local recurrence rates were also high in patients with T1 and T2 lesions treated by local excision plus relatively low dose radiotherapy. Local recurrence was, however, infrequent after partial mastectomy, and no local failures were observed after partial mastectomy plus postoperative radiotherapy to a dose of 5000 rad in 5 weeks. Morbidity with such treatment is minimal and cosmetic results are generally excellent.