Breast conservation therapy for early-stage invasive breast cancer provides survival equivalent to mastectomy. Careful patient selection and surgical technique are necessary to minimize local recurrence. Extensive studies of breast conservation therapy over the past 15 years have identified risk factors for local recurrence, and have proven that certain cases previously thought to be ineligible for lumpectomy (such as occult breast cancer, locally advanced breast cancer, macromastia, and cancer in pregnant patients), can be safely managed with modified BCT approaches. Recent trends in breast cancer management, such as expanded applications of induction chemotherapy, use of magnetic resonance imaging and ultra sound, and touch-prep cytology for intraoperative margin evaluation, can improve success rates for BCT. New developments with brachytherapy may also improve BCT availability by shortening duration of treatment. Innovations with minimally invasive tumor ablation techniques are investigational at present, but may obviate the need for surgical resections in selected patients in the future. Local recurrences that develop after breast conservation therapy should be managed aggressively, as long-term survival can frequently be achieved.
