BREAST CONSERVATIVE SURGERY. A SURGICAL PROCEDURE WHICH COMBINES ONCOLOGICAL SAFETY AND ESTHETIC EFFECT

In the last twenty years, the surgical treatment of breast cancer (BC) has known a substantial progress, evolving from radical mastectomy – a mutilating procedure commonly performed in until 1970s – to breast conservative surgery (BCS) which allows the removal of the entire breast parenchyma saving the skin envelope of the mammary gland, and sentinel lymph node biopsy that helped reducing the complication rate associated with radical axillary dissection. As it has been proved that BCS and radical mastectomy are associated with similar survival rates, BCS or “skin sparing mastectomy” is nowadays considered to be an oncologically safe procedure in locally advanced BC if the surgical resection criteria is respected: negative surgical margins of resection with an entire removal of all the malignant breast tissue and the maintain of aesthetic result. Moreover, owing to the development of novel oncoplastic techniques and the fact that performing BCS allows the preservation of the skin and sometimes the nipple-areola complex (NAC), BCS techniques such as the skin – sparing mastectomy and nipple-areola complex mastectomy are currently considered mainstay treatment of early stage BC without compromising the oncological safety of mastectomy.