Conservation breast treatment is of particular interest to young women, but whether saving the breast carries a penalty in shorter survival or local-regional recurrent disease has not been well-established. At The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, 1161 patients treated prior to 1983 with Stage I or II breast cancer were reviewed. Of these patients, 378 were treated with tumorectomy plus irradiation, and 783 were treated with radical or modified radical mastectomy. The two patient groups were compared relative to local-regional disease recurrence and overall and disease-free survivals. Local recurrences in the breast appear to be more frequent in patients less than or equal to 35 years of age treated with tumorectomy and irradiation than in patients older than 35 years, but in patients aged less than or equal to 50 or greater than 50 or less than or equal to 35 or greater than 35 years, there was no significant statistical difference between tumorectomy and irradiation or mastectomy nor was there a difference in disease-free survival. Overall survival rates favored patients treated by tumorectomy and irradiation.