Ambitions and reality in surgical treatment of breast cancer

This is a brief comment on results in the common surgical treatment of brea st cancer. Based on guiding-lines given by the surgical congress 1985 the d ecentralized treatment routine as it is common today has been analysed and its results have been applied to our regional structures. Under the premise s of standardized diagnosis as well as surgical and postoperative treatment the decentralized treatment of breast cancer is still supported and consid ered useful. Main critical point in the whole therapy concept is the postop erative treatment, especially the adjuvant therapy. Looking for future solu tions it seems to be more effective to reduce the amount of surgical facili ties for the benefit of profiling the remaining ones. This could be applica ble for the treatment of other diseases as well. The improvements that woul d result from this conceptional concentration would be profitable as well f or the patients as for the surgeons.