Abstract
Randomized trials investigating the role of postoperative radiotherapy in breast cancer started in the 1940s in Manchester.’ Fifty years later there is no doubt that radiotherapy has a major infhience on local and regional tumour control, but its overall influence upon patient survival is still unclear. Over this period, Halsted’s radical mastectomy has given way to simple mastectomy, and later, in many cases, quadrantectomy or simply wide local excision; (in the UK at least) full axillary dissections have been increasingly omitted in favour of axillary sampling, or no surgery, although there is a strong recent trend to return to more aggressive axillary surgery. In this ever-changing climate of surgical opinion, it has, perhaps understandably, been difficult to establish precisely the place of the other local/regional treatment modality radiotherapy. At the same time, the value of systemic treatment has tended to overshadow this issue.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
