Oncological Advantages of Oncoplastic Breast-Conserving Surgery in Treatment of Early Breast Cancer

Abstract

The standard approach to breast-conserving surgery is wide local excision of the tumor and radiotherapy. However, a significant number of patients require further surgery to obtain oncologically clear margins, and may obtain a poor cosmetic result following adjuvant radiotherapy. Oncoplastic techniques may result in improved cosmesis, but few studies have investigated the oncological advantage of this approach. The aim of this retrospective study was to compare tumor clearance and the need for further margin excision following standard wide local excision (group A, 121 patients), and oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery (group B, 37 patients). These techniques included therapeutic mammoplasty, sub-axillary fat pad rotation mammoplasty, thoraco-epigastric flap, and central flap. Compared to standard surgery (group A), oncoplastic techniques (group B) can be employed for significantly larger tumors (17.6 mm versus 23.9 mm, p = 0.002). Oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery results in higher mean specimen weights (58.1 g versus 231.1 g, p < 0.0001), higher specimen volumes (112.3 cm(3) versus 484.5 cm(3) , p < 0.0001), and wider clear margins (6.1 mm versus 14.3 mm, p < 0.0001), resulting in lower rates of further surgery (28.9% versus 5.4%, p = 0.002). There was no statistical increase in complication rates following oncoplastic surgery. Oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery is more successful than standard wide local excision in treating larger tumors and obtaining wider radial margins, thus reducing the need for further margin excision, which delays adjuvant therapy. There was no increase in postoperative complication rate using an oncoplastic approach.