50 Landmark Papers every Breast Surgeon Should Know

There has been an exponential increase in the volume and quality of published research relating to breast disease over the past decades. This book identifies the 50 key scientific articles in the field of breast disease and breast surgery and examines their importance and impact on current clinical care.

Among thousands of articles, a small fraction are truly 'game changing'. Such studies form the foundations of breast surgery today, and the selection of papers within this book provide the 50 landmark papers every 21st-century breast surgeon needs to know. A commentary to each carefully selected paper explains why these papers are so important, thus providing every surgeon with the foundation stones of knowledge in this fast-moving area.

A valuable reference not only to the established surgeon, but also to breast surgery residents and trainees, as well as to more experienced surgeons as they continue to learn new techniques and approaches and to improve their knowledge of breast disease and treatments. The papers provide an evidence-based resource for those surgeons preparing for professional exams and may inspire clinicians to produce new research.

Table of Contents:

Section One: Epidemiology

1.        Type and timing of menopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer risk: individual participant meta-analysis of the worldwide epidemiological evidence

Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer

Commentary by Toral Gathani and Isobel Barnes

2.        Moderate Alcohol Intake and Cancer Incidence in Women

Allen N, Beral V, Cassabone D, Kan SW, Reeves GK, Brown A, Green J on behalf of the Million Women Study Collaborators

Commentary by Toral Gathani and Isobel Barnes

Section Two: Screening and Prevention

3.        Tamoxifen for Prevention of Breast Cancer: report of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project P-1 Study (NASBP P-1)

Fisher B, Costantino J, Wickerman D, et al

Commentary by Andrew Kilshaw and Lynda Wyld

4.        The Swedish two county trial of mammographic screening for breast cancer: recent results and calculation of benefit.

Tabar L, Fagerberg G, Duffy SW, et al

Commentary by Alasdair Findlay and Lynda Wyld

5.        The benefits and harms of breast cancer screening: an independent review

Marmot MG, Altman DG, Cameron DA, Dewar JA, Thompson SG, Wilcox M.

Commentary by Colin McIlmunn and Stuart MacIntosh

Section Three: Diagnostic Imaging

6.        Diagnostic Performance of Digital versus Film Mammography for Breast-Cancer Screening (DMIST)

Pisano ED, Gatsonis C, Hendrick E, Yaffe M, Baum JK, Acharyya S, Conant EF, Fajardo LL, Bassett L, D’Orsi C, Jong R, Rebner M.

Commentary by Jonathan James, Mariana Matias and Nisha Sharma

7.        Screening with magnetic resonance imaging and mammography of a UK population at high familial risk of breast cancer: a prospective multicentre cohort study (MARIBS)

Leach MO, Boggis CRM, Dixon AK, Easton DF, et al

Commentary by Jonathan James, Mariana Matias and Nisha Sharma

8.        Comparative effectiveness of MRI in breast cancer (COMICE) trial: a randomised controlled trial

Turnbull L, Brown S, Harvey I, Olivier C, Drew P, Napp V, Hanby A, Brown J

Commentary by Jonathan James, Mariana Matias and Nisha Sharma

Section Four: Surgery: Mastectomy versus conservation

9.        Twenty-year follow-up of a randomized trial comparing total mastectomy, lumpectomy, and lumpectomy plus irradiation for the treatment of invasive breast cancer

Fisher B, Anderson S, Bryant J, Margolese RG, Deutsch M, Fisher ER, Jeong JH, Wolmark N

Commentary by Bahar Mirshekar-Syahkal and John Benson

10.      The Association of Surgical Margins and Local Recurrence in Women with Early-Stage Invasive Breast Cancer Treated with Breast Conserving Therapy: A Meta-Analysis

Houssami N, Macaskill P, Marinovich ML, Morrow M

Commentary by Leah Kim and Mehra Golshan

11.      Ten year survival after breast-conserving surgery plus radiotherapy compared with mastectomy in early breast cancer in the Netherlands: a population-based study

van Maaren MC, de Munck L, de Back GH, Jobsen J, van Dalen T, Poortmans P, Strobbe LC, Siesling S.

Commentary by Ismail Jatoi and John Benson

Section Five: De-escalation of Axillary Surgery

12.      Twenty-five-year follow-up of a randomized trial comparing radical mastectomy, total mastectomy, and total mastectomy followed by irradiation.

Fisher B, Jeong JH, Anderson S, Bryant J, Fisher ER, Wolmark N

Commentary by Eilidh Bruce and Beatrix Elsberger

13.      Effect of Axillary Dissection vs No Axillary Dissection on 10-Year Overall Survival Among Women with Invasive Breast Cancer and Sentinel Node Metastasis: The ACOSOG Z0011 (Alliance) Randomized Clinical Trial.

Giuliano AE, Ballman KV, McCall L, et al.

Commentary by Eilidh Bruce and Beatrix Elsberger

14.   Radiotherapy or surgery of the axilla after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer (EORTC 10981-22023 AMAROS): a randomised, multicentre, open-label, phase 3 non-inferiority trial.

Donker M, van Tienhoven G, Straver ME, et al

Commentary by Eilidh Bruce and Beatrix Elsberger

15.      Sentinel Lymph Node Surgery After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer: The ACOSOG Z1071 (Alliance) Clinical Trial

Boughey JC, Suman VJ, Mittendorf EA, et al.

Commentary by Eilidh Bruce and Beatrix Elsberger

Section Six: Oncoplastic Breast Surgery / Breast Reconstruction

16.      Planning and use of therapeutic mammaplasty-Nottingham approach

S J McCulley and R D Macmillan

Commentary by Danielle Banfield and Shelley Potter

17.      Oncoplastic breast‐conserving surgery for women with primary breast cancer

Nanda A, Hu J, Hodgkinson S, Ali S, Rainsbury R, Roy PG.

Commentary by Katherine Fairhurst and Shelley Potter

18.      Short-term safety outcomes of mastectomy and immediate implant-based breast reconstruction with and without mesh (iBRA): a multicentre, prospective cohort study

Potter et al

Commentary by Danielle Banfield and Shelley Potter

19.      Improving Breast Cancer Surgery: A Classification and Quadrant per Quadrant Atlas for Oncoplastic Surgery

Clough KB, Kaufman GJ, Nos C, Buccimazza I, Sarfati IM

Commentary by David Stark and Shelley Potter

Section Seven: Breast cancer genomics and prognostic tools

20.      Gene expression patterns of breast carcinomas distinguish tumor subclasses with clinical implications

Therese Sørlie, Charles M. Perou, Robert Tibshirani, Turid Aas, Stephanie Geisler, Hilde Johnsen, et al.

Commentary by Cliona Kirwan and Rachel Foster

21.      Comprehensive molecular portraits of human breast tumours

The cancer Genome Atlas Network

Commentary by Rachel Foster and Cliona Kirwan

22.      70-Gene Signature as an Aid to Treatment Decisions in Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Fatima Cardoso, Laura J. van’t Veer, Jan Bogaerts, et al for the MINDACT investigators

Commentary by Cliona Kirwan and Rachel Foster

23.      21-Gene Assay to Inform Chemotherapy Benefit in Node-Positive Breast Cancer (RxPonder)

K. Kalinsky, W.E. Barlow, J.R. Gralow, et al

Commentary by Cliona Kirwan and Rachel Foster

24.      PREDICT: a new UK prognostic model that predicts survival following surgery for invasive breast cancer

Gordon C Wishart, Elizabeth M Azzato, David C Greenberg, Jem Rashbass, Olive Kearins, Gill Lawrence, Carlos Caldas, and  Paul DP Pharoah

Commentary by Rachel Foster and Cliona Kirwan

Section Eight: Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

25.      Genomic analysis defines clonal relationships of ductal carcinoma in situ and recurrent invasive breast cancer.

Esther H. Lips, Tapsi Kumar, Anargyros Megalios, Lindy L. Visser, Michael Sheinman, Angelo Fortunato, et al

Commentary by Thomas Seddon, Pavneet S Kohli and Tim Rattay

26.      Pathological features of 11,337 patients with primary ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and subsequent events: results from the Sloane Project

Shaaban AM, Hilton B, Clements K, Provenzano E, Cheung S, Wallis MG, Sawyer ES, Thomas JS, Hanby AM, Pinder SE, Thompson AM

Commentary by Stacey Carter, Elizabeth Bonefas, Karen Clements and Alastair Thompson

27.      Effect of tamoxifen and radiotherapy in women with locally excised ductal carcinoma in situ: long-term results from the UK/ANZ DCIS trial.

Cuzick J, Sestak I, Pinder SE, Ellis IO, Forsyth S, Bundred NJ, Forbes JF, Bishop H, Fentiman IS, George WD

Commentary by Nicole James and Gurdeep Mannu

28.      A prognostic index for ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.

Silverstein MJ, Poller D, Craig PH, et al

Commentary by Amit Agrawal and Mahmoud Soliman

Section Nine: Adjuvant Chemotherapy

29.      Comparisons between different polychemotherapy regimens for early breast cancer: meta-analyses of long-term outcome among 100,000 women in 123 randomised trials

Peto, R., Davies, C., Godwin, J., Gray, R., Pan, H. C., Clarke, M., Cutter, D., Darby, S., McGale, P., Taylor, C., Wang, Y. C., Bergh, J., Di Leo, A., Albain, K., Swain, S., Piccart, M., & Pritchard, K

Commentary by Jessica Banks, Lynda Wyld and Janet Brown

30.      Adjuvant Capecitabine for Breast Cancer after Preoperative Chemotherapy. CREATE-X

N Masuda, Soo-Jung Lee, S Ohtani, Y-H Im, E-S Lee, I Yokota, K Kuroi, S-A Im, B-W Park, S-B Kim, Y Yanagita, and S Ohno et al

Commentary by Soudamini Nayak, Lynda Wyld and Janet Brown

Section Ten: Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy

31.      Relevance of breast cancer hormone receptors and other factors to the efficacy of adjuvant tamoxifen: patient-level meta-analysis of randomised trials

Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG)

Commentary by Fiona James and Tom Hubbard

32.      Long term effects of continuing adjuvant tamoxifen to 10 years versus stopping at 5 years after diagnosis of oestrogen receptor – positive breast cancer: ATLAS, a randomised trial

C Davies et al

Commentary by Fiona James and Tom Hubbard

33.      Tailoring Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy for Premenopausal Breast Cancer

Prudence A Francis et al

Commentary by Fiona James and Douglas Ferguson

34.      Anastrozole alone or in combination with tamoxifen versus tamoxifen alone for adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with early breast cancer: first results of the ATAC randomised trial

ATAC Trialist’s Group

Commentary by Alex Humphreys and Douglas Ferguson

Section Eleven: Immunotherapy / Systemic Therapy

35.      11 years' follow-up of trastuzumab after adjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive early breast cancer: final analysis of the HERceptin Adjuvant (HERA) trial

Cameron D, Piccart-Gebhart MJ, Gelber RD, Procter M, Goldhirsch A, de Azambuja E, et al & Herceptin Adjuvant (HERA) Trial Study Team

Commentary by Wilson Cheah Pui Fui and Ellen Copson

36.      Adjuvant Olaparib for Patients with BRCA1- or BRCA2-Mutated Breast Cancer

Tutt ANJ, Garber JE, Kaufman B, et al

Commentary by Anthony Mark Monaghan and Ellen Copson

37.      Pembrolizumab for Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Schmid, P., et al

Commentary by Constantinos Savva and Ellen Copson

38.      Trastuzumab Emtansine for Residual Invasive HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

von Minckwitz, Huang, Mano, et al. for the KATHERINE Investigators

Commentary by Maclyn Augustine and Ellen Copson

Section Twelve: Adjuvant Radiotherapy

39.      Breast-conserving surgery with or without irradiation in early breast cancer (PRIME II).

Ian H Kunkler et al

Commentary by Puteri Abdul Haris and David Dodwell

40.      Effect of radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery on 10-year recurrence and 15-year breast cancer death: meta-analysis of individual patient data for 10 801 women in 17 randomised trials

Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG)

Commentary by Puteri Abdul Haris and David Dodwell

41.      Whole-breast irradiation with or without a boost for patients treated with breast-conserving surgery for early breast cancer: 20-year follow-up of a randomised phase 3 trial.

H Bartelink et al

Commentary by Puteri Abdul Haris and David Dodwell

42.      Effect of radiotherapy after mastectomy and axillary surgery on 10-year recurrence and 20-year breast cancer mortality: meta-analysis of individual patient data for 8135 women in 22 randomised trials.

Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG)

Commentary by Puteri Abdul Haris and David Dodwell

43.      Hypofractionated breast radiotherapy for 1 week versus 3 weeks (FAST-Forward): 5-year efficacy and late normal tissue effects; results from a multicentre, non-inferiority, randomised, phase 3 trial.

Brunt AM, et al

Commentary by Puteri Abdul Haris and David Dodwell

Section Thirteen: Bisphosphonates

44.      Zoledronic acid as adjuvant therapy for breast cancer (does Adjuvant Zoledronic acid redUce REcurrence in patients with high risk, localised breast cancer), the AZURE trial

Robert Coleman, David Cameron, David Dodwell, et al on behalf of the AZURE investigators.

Commentary by Steven Wood, Emma Green and Janet Brown

45.      Long-term effects of anastrozole on bone mineral density: 7-year results from the ATAC trial

Eastell, R., Adams, J., Clack, G., Howell, A., Cuzick, J., Mackey, J., Beckmann, M. W., & Coleman, R. E.

Commentary by Sophie Trotter and Janet Brown

Section Fourteen: Surgery for Metastatic Disease

46.      Locoregional treatment versus no treatment of the primary tumour in metastatic breast cancer: an open-label randomised controlled trial.

Rajendra Badwe, Rohini Hawaldar, Nita Nair, Rucha Kaushik, Vani Parmar, Shabina Siddique, Ashwini Budrukkar, Indraneel Mittra, Sudeep Gupta

Commentary by Urvashi Jain, Ashutosh Kothari and Rajendra Badwe

Section Fifteen: Breast Cancer in Pregnancy / Prophylactic surgery for family history

47.      Treatment of breast cancer during pregnancy: an observational study

Loibl S, Han SN, Minckwitz GV, Bontenbal M, Ring A, Giermek J et al

Commentary by Lydia Newman, Chris Coyle, Avi Agrawal and Edward St John

48.      Germline BRCA mutation and outcome in young-onset breast cancer (POSH): a prospective cohort study

Ellen R Copson, Tom C Maishman, Will J Tapper, Ramsey I Cutress, Stephanie Greville-Heygate, Douglas G Altman et al Commentary by Wilson Cheah Pui Fui, Camellia Richards, Constantinos Savva and Ramsey Cutress

49.      Efficacy of Bilateral Prophylactic Mastectomy in Women with a Family History of Breast Cancer.

Hartmann L., Schaid D., Woods J., Crotty T., Myers J., Arnold P.et al

Commentary by Hamza Ikram and Lynda Wyld

50.      Wire- and magnetic-seed-guided localization of impalpable breast lesions: iBRA-NET localisation study (Arm 1)

Rajiv V Dave, Emma Barrett, Jenna Morgan, et al on behalf of the iBRA-NET Localisation Study collaborative

Commentary by Iram Hassan, Samantha Chen, Masooma Zaidi, Peter A Barry and Edward St John