Overall survival and disease control rates for operable invasive breast cancer in the era of conservative surgery; retrospective, institutional, and five-year follow-up data

Background: Following breast cancer treatment recommendations, the conservative approach is accepted and highly respected in the Clinical Hospital Center (CHC) Rijeka. However, we have found that institutional follow-up data are lacking. This retrospective analysis aims to update institutional data on survival and disease control rates. Methods: From 2011 till 2014, 915 breast cancer patients underwent surgery at CHC Rijeka, and 615 were included in this analysis. The Institutional Ethics Committee approved the analysis. Results: All patients were female, and the average age was 59 years. In the 5-year postoperative period, local, regional, and distant recurrence-free survival rates and overall survival and disease-free survival were calculated. All rates negatively correlate with a higher T and N status and a higher stage of the disease. The analysis has also demonstrated that in the pT1-3 pN0-1 subgroup, sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was not inferior to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in terms of locoregional control of disease and overall survival. Conclusion: Besides updating institutional data, the analysis confirmed that overall survival and locoregional control of the disease in the upfront-surgery patients are similar between pN0 and pN1 subpopulations and between pN2 and pN3, but statistically significantly different between pN0-1 and pN2-3. Currently ongoing, prospective observational multicenter clinical trial aims to translate the significance of these results into the neoadjuvant era.