Oncoplastic breast surgery: A review and systematic approach

Oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS) is relatively new, but has made rapid progress from its tentative steps of infancy in the 1990s. The recent Milanese Consensus Conference on Breast Conservation concluded that, firstly, oncoplastic techniques are warranted to allow wide excision and clear margins without compromising cosmesis. Secondly, such surgery is ideally performed at the same time as oncological excision.1 Whilst technically more challenging than standard breast conserving therapy (BCT), OBS is well proven, if not yet widely practised, both oncologically and aesthetically and a review of the available techniques is perhaps timely.

The roots of breast conserving therapy can be traced to the 1930s, actually due to advances made in radiotherapy, and the last 20 years have seen it become firmly established. This review aims to summarise the key historical developments and latest innovations in OBS. Not only are our patients, who expect not only safe cancer treatment but a satisfactory aesthetic outcome, increasingly informed and demanding, but longer follow up has stimulated surgeons to improve outcomes. In many cases, particularly with ptosis and macromastia, the cancer can be treated, usually with wider excision margins, simultaneously improving the aesthetic appearance. Present at the birth of OBS, the Institut Curie has continued to introduce innovative techniques over the last two decades and a systematic approach, comprising nine basic techniques, has evolved to allow high quality treatment of any and all breast cancers suitable for OBS.