Radiotherapy of Breast Cancer in the Early Stages (T 1 -T 2 ).

Abstract

During the quinquennium 1968–72, 79 patients with breast cancer in the early stages (T₁-T₂) were given radiotherapy at the National Cancer Institute of Milan after surgery had been excluded on grounds of age, diabetes, cardiocirculatory status or other controindication. 69 patients were at stage T₂ and 39 had lymphnode involvement (31 N₁ and 8 N₃). 40 received roentgentherapy and 39 cobalt therapy. The crude five–year survival was 53 % and the age-corrected rate 62 %, high values considering average age (67 years) and the poor general condition of the patients. Survival was better in the N₀ cases that in those with lpmphnode involvement (71 % compared with 50 % at 4 years) and in the over-65s than in the less elderly (77 % against 38 % at 4 years). Cobalt therapy, preferable to roentgentherapy because treatment is less lengthy and is better tolerated, did not yield better clinical results in terms either of local recurrence or of long term survival. Local recurrences occurred in 13 % of patients with a higher incidence at lymphnode level (6/39) that at the primary site. Radiotherapy thus definitely seems to be effective, even on a long term basis, in early breast cancer, when surgery, radical or conservative, is contraindicated.