A Comparative Matched Study of Breast-Conserving Therapy and Modified Radical Mastectomy in Iranian Women

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent diagnosed visceral cancer with 13400 new cases annually among Iranian women. Modified radical mastectomy (MRM) was the old standard surgical treatment in patients with breast cancer from 70 years ago and breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with adjuvant radiotherapy was the standard treatment from 30 years ago. Objectives: In this matched historical cohort study, we compared two types of therapy for breast carcinoma: breast-conserving therapy (BCT), and MRM. Methods: Medical records of 6000 patients with breast cancer from the database of Cancer Research Center of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were reviewed and 1310 patients who had been treated by BCT (group A) or MRM (group B) were selected based on a time- stratified 1:1 between September 2002 and December 2014 as 10 baseline variables. By log-rank test analysis, their local recurrence (LR), disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated and compared. Results: In groups A and B, the median age at the diagnosis time was 48.11 and 48.64 years old, respectively. Median follow-up time was 71 months since April 2015. 1.68% of patients in group A and 1.07% of patients in group B had local recurrence during the five years of follow up, (P = 0.173). In the group A and B, five years DFS were 87.94% and 80.46%, (P < 0.001) and five years OS were 89.31% and 83.02%, respectively (P = 0.041). Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that 5-year DFS and 5-year OS in BCT group were better than in the MRM group. Longer follow-up time of the patients to compare 10-year DFS and 10-year OS or even 20-year OS between two groups is recommended.