[Local recurrence after preoperative irradiation and radical surgery in patients with locally advanced breast carcinoma (clinical stage A)].

The rationale preoperative irradiation is expressed by the sound: eradication of sensitive tumour cells at the periphery of a lesion making complete resection more likely and dissemination of tumour cells by operative manipulation less likely. The dose of irradiation required is approximately 80 to 85% of the dose needed to permanently control the palpable disease, a dose which does not interfere with subsequent mastectomy, if 3 to 4 weeks elapse between the termination of irradiation and mastectomy. One hundred fifteen consecutively examined patients with stage IIIa breast cancer were treated over the period from January 1985 to December 1987 at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology, Belgrade, Serbia.