Surgery With or Without Lymph Node Removal in Treating Older Women With Stage I or Stage IIA Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: * Compare local and systemic disease-free survival, ipsilateral axillary relapse, occurrence of postmastectomy syndrome, and overall survival of elderly women with clinically operable stage I or IIA breast cancer who subsequently receive adjuvant tamoxifen after treatment with breast surgery with or without axillary node dissection. * Compare the toxicity of these regimens in these patients. * Compare the quality of life in patients treated with these regimens. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to whether they received prior primary surgery (yes vs no) and participating center. * Arm I: Patients undergo mastectomy, lumpectomy, or quadrantectomy with axillary clearance. Patients then receive oral tamoxifen for 5 years. Patients may also undergo sentinel node biopsy. * Arm II: Patients undergo surgery as in arm I without axillary clearance. Patients then receive oral tamoxifen for 5 years. Patients in both arms who undergo breast-conserving surgery may receive optional radiotherapy for 5-6 weeks to the remaining breast tissue, chest, and lung. Upon recurrence in the conserved breast, patients undergo total mastectomy; those in arm II who experience ipsilateral axillary recurrence undergo surgical excision. Adjuvant tamoxifen and follow up are continued. Quality of life is assessed. Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months while receiving tamoxifen, and then annually thereafter. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 1,020 patients will be accrued for this study within approximately 5 years.