Trends in mastectomy and reconstruction for breast cancer; a twelve year experience from a tertiary care center

Background Many surgical options exist for breast cancer, including breast conserving therapy (BCT), mastectomy with reconstruction (MAST+RECON) or without reconstruction (MAST). Long-term results regarding oncologic outcomes are few and primarily retrospective studies. Methods A retrospective review of a prospectively collected database of patients undergoing breast surgery for breast cancer from 2002 to 2014 was performed. Patients were separated into 3 time periods for analysis: 2002 to 2005, 2006 to 2009, and 2010 to 2014. Recurrence outcomes were compared at 4 years between MAST+RECON patients. Results Two thousand seventy-six patients were identified: 61.2% underwent BCT, 19.7% had MAST, and 19.1% had MAST+RECON. BCT patients were older and had smaller tumors. MAST+RECON increased in prevalence, whereas BCT decreased. Implant-based reconstruction and conservative mastectomy rates increased over the study period. Four-year local recurrence–free rates were similar in nipple-sparing and skin-sparing mastectomy groups. Conclusions BCT usage has decreased, trending toward immediate, nipple-sparing mastectomy, implant-based reconstruction. Surgeons should be aware of trends to optimally offer patients their surgical options.