IntroductionBreast cancer affects 1 million women in the developed world every year. 1 The burden of breast cancer is also on the rise in the developing world. According to Jones, 2 it is estimated that 70% of new cancer cases will occur in the developing world by the year 2020.Until the 1970s, the Halsted radical mastectomy had been the surgical procedure in the management of breast cancer irrespective of size. It was described and performed by William Stewart Halsted in 1882.3 It included the excision of the skin, the breast and underlying pectoralis muscles. Patients also underwent an axillary lymph node dissection. A skin graft was often used to close the wound defect. Patients were left with morbid disfiguring appearances.Modified radical mastectomy was shown to be as effectual as radical mastectomy and less mutilating. Modified radical mastectomy remains to be applicable to certain patients. However, breast-conserving therapy (BCT) has become the adopted procedure for the surgical management of early breast cancer. BCT refers to the surgical excision of the primary breast cancer tumour with a rim of normal breast tissue, followed by radiation therapy. It is also referred to in the literature as lumpectomy, partial mastectomy or segmental mastectomy. 4 Over the past 40 years, prospective large multicentre randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in Europe and United States have provided level 1 evidence that there is no statistically significant difference in the overall long-term survival between mastectomy and BCT in appropriately selected patients treated for early breast cancer.5 Although the overall long-term survival is similar between the two procedures, patients undergoing BCT are at a recognised risk of ipsilateral breast tumour recurrence. 6 The success rate of BCT relies upon appropriate patient selection, surgical technique and postoperative radiotherapy to eliminate microscopic tumour cells in the ipsilateral breast. The goals of BCT are therefore to resect the tumour with clear microscopic margins and to achieve acceptable cosmetic outcomes without compromising patient survival.Background: Breast-conserving therapy (BCT) is a wide local excision of the tumour usually followed by radiation treatment to the breast. It is the mainstay treatment for carefully selected patients with early breast cancer. There has not been a formal audit to review BCT outcomes in our unit.