PROGNOSTIC FACTORS FOR BREAST RECURRENCE AFTER CONSERVATIVE BREAST SURGERY AND RADIOTHERAPY - RESULTS FROM A RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Prognostic factors predicting for breast recurrence following breast c onserving surgery and radiotherapy have been identified in a prospecti ve randomised trial comparing two different radiotherapy techniques. T he first used megavoltage radiation to encompass the whole breast and regional nodes (WF group). The second used an electron field directed to the tumour bed only (LF group). With a median follow up of 8 years survival in both groups was the same (72%). There was an increased rat e of breast recurrence in the WF group: 25%, compared to the WF group: 13% (P = 0.00008), expressed in actuarial terms at 8 years. In a mult ivariate analysis of factors predicting for breast recurrence, once th e difference in treatment technique is allowed for, only two factors w ere found to be significant: histological grade (P = 0.013) and lympho vascular invasion in the histological specimen (P = 0.037).