Analysis of Breast-Conserving Surgery Plus Whole-Breast Irradiation Versus Mastectomy

The aim of the study is to compare long-term outcomes and clinicopathologic characteristics between patients treated with breast conserving surgery + whole breast irradiation or mastectomy for breast cancer. Recent observations regarding long-term outcomes among patients with early-stage breast cancer who underwent breast-conserving surgery plus whole-breast irradiation or mastectomy are from a small number of registry-based studies. Therefore, these findings may overestimate differences in survival between the two groups, compared with randomized controlled trials conducted in the 1980s. This study performed a propensity score-matched analysis in a cohort of 9710 patients aged \<70 years who underwent breast conserving surgery + whole breast irradiation or mastectomy without external radiotherapy for a first primary breast cancer (pT1-2, N0-3a) at the European Institute of Oncology between 2000 and 2008. Patients were matched by propensity score.