ABSTRACT
During recent decades, the surgical approach to treat breast cancer has changed. Through - out most of the 20th century the traditional surgical approach has been the radical or the modified radical mastectomy. The radical mastectomy was introduced by Halsted;1 it included removal of the breast, including an ample amount of the overlying skin, the greater part of the underlying pectoral muscles, all axillary lymph nodes and, in later years, also the supraclavicular nodes in most cases. The Halsted mastectomy was readily accepted due to its good treatment results. In later years it was found that less mutilating surgery, with preservation of the pectoral major muscles or both pectoral muscles (the modified radical mastectomy) was equally effective with regard to locoregional control and survival. From the 1970s onwards, the modified radical mastectomy became the standard surgical treatment of early breast cancer.
