Key clinical point: Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with radiotherapy yields superior survival vs. mastectomy in patients with early-stage breast cancer.
Major finding: At a median follow-up of 6.28 years, mastectomy without radiotherapy vs. BCS with radiotherapy was associated with worse overall survival (OS; hazard ratio [HR], 1.79; P less than .001) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS; HR, 1.66; P less than .001). Mastectomy with radiotherapy also showed lower OS (HR, 1.24; P less than .001) and BCSS (HR, 1.28; P=.001) vs. BCS and radiotherapy.
Study details: A cohort study of 48,986 patients with primary invasive T1-2 N0-2 breast cancer who underwent breast surgery between 2008 and 2017.
Disclosure: This work was funded by the Swedish Breast Cancer Association. Dr de Boniface was supported by an investigator award from the Swedish Cancer Society, and Ms Johansson was supported by a research grant from the Swedish Research Council. The authors did not declare any conflict of interest.
Source: de Boniface J et al. JAMA Surg. 2021 May 5. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.1438.