2 Oral - Randomised controlled trial of breast conserving therapy: 30 year analysis of the Scottish breast conservation trial

Abstract

Background: The standard of care for most early breast cancer patients is breast conserving surgery (BCS), adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) and systemic therapy. Several trials have confirmed that RT reduces local recurrence, but there are few reports of trials with longterm follow up assessing the impact of omission of RT on overall survival. The Scottish Conservation trial of BCS & systemic therapy appropriate to ER status ± postoperative whole breast RT (Forrest et al. Lancet 1996;348:708–13) showed ipsilateral breast tumour recurrence (IBTR) of 24.5% in the no RT arm and 5.8% in the RT arm but no difference in overall survival at 6 years after randomisation.