Incidence of local recurrence after breast preserving surgery

: Breast preserving surgery combined with adjuvant radiotherapy became more frequent in the last 20 years in the surgical treatment of early stage (Std. I-II) breast cancer in Hungary. Those who refuse this method usually allude to the frequent multifocality and the high recurrence rate of breast cancer. In the 1st Department of Surgery, Medical and Health Science Center, University of Debrecen, 825 patients underwent breast preserving surgery with a recurrence rate of 9.1% between January 1996 and December 2003. The time of appearance of recurrence varied between 5 and 102 months after surgery. There was no difference between the premenopausal and postmenopausal group. The 6.7% rate in pT1N0 tumors elevated to 16.7% in patients with pT2N1. According to histological grade the Grade 1 tumors had a recurrence rate of 2.3%, in Grade 2 we found 6.2% and in Grade 3 as high as 15.8%. Other unfavorable histo-morphological signs are the absence of estrogen receptors, the presence of extensive intraductal component and vessel invasion. Their opinion is that in case of local recurrence with favorable prognostic factors excision should be performed if acceptable cosmetic result can be achieved.