A Comparison of Clinical Outcomes for Breast-conserving Treatment and Mastectomy for Early Breast Cancer

To compare the treatment outcomes and to analyze prognostic factors between the use of a breast-conserving treatment (BCT) and a mastectomy for early stage breast cancer. We retrospectively reviewed 1,200 patients with pathological stage T1-2N0 breast cancer who received surgery between September 1994 and December 2002 at Samsung Medical Center. We compared the patient characteristics and treatment outcomes between the two treatment groups. Among the 1,174 eligible patients, 601 (51.2%) patients received a BCT and the remaining 573 (48.8%) patients received a mastectomy. The mastectomy group of patients had significantly more cases with a larger tumor size, multicentricity, extensive intraductal component, and estrogen- and progesterone- receptor negativity. The ten-year overall survival rates (OS) of the BCT and mastectomy groups were 91.96% and 91.01%, respectively (p=0.1274). The ten-year disease-free survival rates (DFS) were 80.48% for the BCT group of patients and 84.95% for the mastectomy group of patients, respectively (p=0.8795). Our study shows some differences in patient characteristics between the two treatment groups. However, these differences did not result in significant survival differences