Management of early stage breast cancer—current status of treatment: Workshop report

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INTRODUCTION THE RECENT decade has seen the establishment of breast conserving procedures, adjuvant cytostatic and hormonal treatments and the systematic screcning for breast cancer. Although the feasibility of breast conserving procedures is now formally cstablished, many questions remain as to the role of different factors involved, which could dctcrminc to some cxtcnt the therapy or the selection procedures for the patients in which such a therapy is to bc considered suitable. Also, for the systemic adjuvant treatments, many fundamental questions arc still open as to the mechanisms of action and as to the patient groups that would profit from such therapy. In a short period of time, the management of small breast lesions, which used to be a simple and straightforward procedure with mastectomy, has evolved into a complex decision making process, requiring the careful balancing of the effectiveness and side-effects of a number of treatment modalities El]. In the workshop on early disease, the discussion concentrated on the different problems directly related to the breast conserving proccdurc, with specific interest in the treatment of ductular carcinoma in situ and the role of adjuvant therapy. This selection means that only a part of the valuable new information on the primary treatment brought to this conference in the numerous proffcrcd posters could be discussed. In this workshop report only abstracts of posters shown in this confcrcncc arc given as rcfcrcnccs. The spontaneous and invited contributions to the