Radiation Therapy or Standard Therapy in Treating Women With Stage II Breast Cancer Who Have Undergone Mastectomy

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed unilateral invasive breast cancer
• * pT1, pN1, M0 disease
• * pT2, pN1, M0 disease
• * pT2, pN0 disease with grade III histology and/or lymphovascular invasion
• * Multifocal breast cancer meeting both of the following criteria:
• * Largest discrete tumor ≥ 2 cm if N0
• * Grade III histology and/or lymphovascular invasion
• No bilateral breast cancer
• Axillary node negative status by axillary clearance, axillary node sampling, or sentinel node biopsy
• * Patients with axillary node positive (1-3 positive nodes, including micrometastases\* \> 0.2 mm and ≤ 2 mm) must have had an axillary node clearance (minimum of 10 nodes removed) performed
• * No more than 3 pathologically involved lymph nodes
• * No internal mammary nodes visible on sentinel node scintigraphy in the absence of negative histology NOTE: \*Isolated tumor cells not counted as micrometastases
• Underwent total mastectomy (with minimum of 1 mm margin clear of invasive cancer and DCIS) and axillary surgery with staging procedure
• * Must have undergone adjuvant systemic chemotherapy if indicated for intermediate-risk breast cancer
• * Patients undergoing immediate breast reconstruction allowed
• No known BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers
• Hormone receptor status not specified
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Menopausal status not specified
• Not pregnant
• Fit for adjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant endocrine therapy, and post-operative radiotherapy
• No prior or concurrent malignancy except curatively treated nonmelanomatous skin cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent trastuzumab
• No prior neoadjuvant systemic therapy