New lumps in the breast following conservation treatment for early XXXX .

@entity1 @entity0 @entity39 @entity5 @entity3201
A new lump in the breast following conservation treatment for early @entity0 may represent a recurrence of the disease or may be a benign lesion. Clinical evaluation of these lumps is often extremely difficult and, potentially, mammography would seem to be of great importance in the assessment. Between November 1981 and March 1986, 214 @entity1 with operable @entity0 of 4 cm or less in diameter underwent conservative treatment. The conservation technique comprised synchronous excision of the primary @entity5 without a wide margin, axillary clearance, interstitial irradiation with @entity3201 192 (2000 cGy), and subsequent external beam radiotherapy to the breast (4600 cGy). After an average follow-up of 26 months, 17 @entity1 developed a new lump in the treated breast necessitating further biopsy. Seven of these were malignant and 10 benign. In the latter category the most frequent finding was fat @entity39 . Clinically, the lesions were indistinguishable from each other. The mammographic signs, which best predicted @entity5 , were either of a mass or of a @entity5 . This study illustrates the problems associated with deciding the nature of a new lump in the breast following conservation treatment. Mammography is complementary to physical examination, and a base-line mammogram six months after completion of therapy is helpful. Despite the use of mammography, biopsy is the only definitive way of excluding recurrence.
