Surgical Management of Breast Cancer in Turkey: a 30-Year Single-Center Retrospective Study of 2531 Patients

Mastectomy and lumpectomy are well-established surgical methods for the surgical treatment of breast cancer. The comparison of these methods within the 30-year period in terms of clinicopathological characteristics, recurrence, and survival patterns is required in order to provide aid in clinical decision-making. A total of 2531 women who underwent mastectomy or lumpectomy between 1982 and 2012 for primary invasive breast tumors were compared. Starting from 2003, similar variables for patients with primary invasive breast tumors who underwent sentinel node biopsy (SNB) were presented. Mastectomy was performed in 1870 patients and lumpectomy in 661. The median follow-up was 38 months for all patients. The ratio of mastectomy was lower for the patients who underwent SNB. There was no significant difference in breast cancer-related survival or disease-free survival between lumpectomy and mastectomy even after adjusting for the clinicopathological variables. Lumpectomy and mastectomy demonstrate similar survival rates for patients with invasive breast carcinoma. Tumor grade, stage, hormone receptor status, lymphovascular invasion, and distant recurrence have an impact on breast cancer-related survival.