CONSERVATIVE MANA6£MENT OF EARLY BREAST CANCER

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most significant health threats to women in the world. The history of breast cancer is rich and interesting, it dates 3000 B.C at the time of ancient Egyptians, it is that cancer that has given rise to the largest number of articles in medical history.

Physicians are still trying to identify the ideal therapy for carcinoma of the / breast. This therapy represents the best compromise between the least mutilating! and the most efficacious form of treatment. Currently for most patients with early stage breast cancer this form of therapy is BCT. BCT has emerged as an appropriate treatment for a wide range of patients with early stage breast cancer. Umberto Veronesi is considered the true father of BCT, when in the 1960's he presented• a proposal to the WHO to include quadrantectomy, axillary dissection •• and radiation therapy trial in comparison to • radical and modified radical mastectomy. The evolution of this idea was from the belief that the disease came to be viewed by Veronesi as one generally involving only part of the breast and not involving the whole gland. This idea was supported by the work of Fisher who stated that breast cancer does not spread in an orderly fashion as described by Halsed, but can spread by blood before metastasizing to regional lymph nodes.