Effect of young age, positive margins, and triple negative status on disease recurrence after breast conserving therapy

Breast conserving surgery and mastectomy are both widely accepted surgical treatments for breast cancer. Where both apply, survival probabilities after surgery are regarded as equivalent (1-5). However, the risk of local recurrence is currently slightly greater after breast conserving surgery despite the addition of whole breast irradiation, although the difference is becoming smaller and clinically insignificant (6-8). This risk is on average 0.5% to 1% per year (1-11), but the highest hazard occurs during the first 5 years after surgery (12)