The breast journal
-
The purpose of this article was to review the patterns and morbidity of regional recurrence (RR) in patients with early breast cancer, efficacy of salvage therapy for RR, and complications of regional nodal treatment. A retrospective evaluation of 1,158 patients with stage I or stage II breast cancer treated with conservative surgery and radiotherapy (RT) between 1979 and 1994 was performed. Seven hundred fifty patients underwent axillary surgery, and 229 patients received RT as their only treatment of the regional lymphatics. ⋯ Although RR was uncommon in patients treated with axillary surgery and/or regional nodal irradiation, salvage therapy failed to eradicate the recurrence in approximately two thirds of the patients with a RR. Ongoing research is essential to optimize regional control with an acceptable level of risk of treatment complications. Sentinel lymph node biopsy, if validated as an accurate method of staging the axilla in patients with breast cancer, would allow selective avoidance of regional nodal treatment and hence the associated morbidity.