Between 1978 and 1985, 393 of 2,765 (14%) patients with operable cancer of the breast (clinical stage T0-3N0-2M0) were irradiated after excisional biopsy and staging axillary dissection. Of 77 patients with microscopic axillary metastases, 68 received systemic adjuvant therapy. Treatment failed locally in 26 cases, and there were seven patients with distant metastasis. The three major factors for increased local treatment failure were (a) age below 40 years (P = .003), (b) negative estrogen receptor assay result (P = .03), and (c) failure to deliver a radiation boost dose when tumor was present at the margin of the specimen (P = .002). The size of the tumor, the nodal status, the progesterone receptor assay result, and the presence of ductal carcinoma in situ mixed with infiltrating carcinoma did not show a significant influence on local recurrence. In 274 of 393 (70%) patients, cosmesis was evaluated. The four major factors affecting cosmesis favorably were (a) utilization of a wedge (P less than .0001); (b) treatment of two fields a day (P less than .0001); (c) failure to use a separate treatment port to the regional lymph nodes, so as to avoid field junctions (P = .0003); and (d) small size of specimen (less than 50 cm2) (P = .0171). A second or third cancer was found in 39 of the 393 (10%) patients; contralateral breast cancer was the most common form (n = 23), followed by genitourinary cancer (n = 5). The most frequent complication was arm edema (6%).

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Thirty-eight patients with residual or recurrent primary thyroid cancers which did not take up 1-131 were treated with external beam irradiation. Excluding 5 patients with malignant lymphoma, there were 23 patients with local disease and 10 with distant metastases. Doses ranged from 3,500 to 7,000 rads (35-70 Gy) among the 23 with local disease; local tumor control was achieved in 8. Six are alive and well 2-11 years later. External beam irradiation should be considered in locally advanced, incompletely resected, recurrent and metastatic thyroid malignancies of all histological types without 1-131 uptake. Reviewed are the age and sex distribution, histology, stage, extent of surgery, and dose and radiotherapy technique as they affect survival and patterns of failure.

Forty-two patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal vestibule were reviewed. The patients were treated at either the Southern California Permanente Medical Group or the UCLA Medical Center. Thirty-eight patients (90%) had early lesions and 4 (10%) had late disease (involving the nodes or bone). The following conclusions were formed from this study: (1) Patients without bone destruction or lymph node metastases will do well with either irradiation or surgery. Those with bone destruction or lymph node metastases will do poorly in spite of radical treatment. (2) Early lesions can often be cured with either partial rhinectomy or irradiation. (3) A surgical recurrence following partial rhinectomy can be salvaged with irradiation. (4) A radiation recurrence of an early lesion can be salvaged with surgery. (5) The routine use of total rhinectomy for early carcinoma or radiation failure is unwarranted. (6) Other primary cancers are not uncommon when followup is extended to the 5- to 10-year interval.