The problem of local recurrence following conservative surgery for carcinoma of the breast

Follow-up of patients after local excision of carcinoma of the breast indicated that there was a high incidence of local recurrence and that this could be a difficult problem to manage. A retrospective study was performed comparing 50 patients who had undergone local excision and radiotherapy with 50 patients following simple mastectomy and radiotherapy. Local recurrence occurred in 16 per cent of the local excision group compared with 2 per cent in the simple mastectomy group.