Development and Trends of Surgical Modalities for Breast Cancer in China: A Review of 16-Year Data

Surgery is the most important treatment for nonmetastatic breast cancer; however, the utilization of modern surgical techniques in management of breast cancer in mainland China has not been reported.

The medical records of 5887 consecutive breast cancer patients treated surgically in the past 16 years were reviewed retrospectively; the utilization of different surgical modalities and associated clinical outcomes were analyzed.

Median age of all patients was 50 (range 16–92). About 1015 patients were staged as 0–I, 3569 stage II, 517 stage III, and 786 cases could not be staged. Extensive radical mastectomy (ERM), radical mastectomy (RM), modified radical mastectomy (MRM), simple mastectomy (SM), and breast-conserving surgery (BCS) were used in 8%, 27.2%, 55.7%, 1.5%, and 6.3% of patients, respectively. In addition, 1.3% of patients received breast reconstruction. The proportion of early-stage breast cancer increased, and the surgery patterns varied. MRM gradually replaced ERM and RM. The prevalence of BCS began to increase from the mid-1990s and currently represents about 12%. The prevalence of reconstruction also increased and now accounts for 5%. Age, pathologic pattern, and TNM staging affected the choice of surgery modalities markedly. Although patients receiving RM/ERM had worse survival than those receiving BCS/MRM, the survival outcomes of these four groups were similar in the early-stage population.

MRM remains the most-used surgical modality in operable breast cancer, although the utilization of BCS for early-stage disease has increased rapidly in last decade. Reconstruction following mastectomy as an alternative to BCS is available. Breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and MRM provide similar local controls and long-term survival for breast cancer. Selection of appropriate candidates for a certain surgery requires an assessment of the patient’s age and clinical and pathological characteristics of the tumor.