From January 1984 through December 1990, 311 patients affected with breast cancer were treated with quadrantectomy plus lymphadenectomy and radiation therapy (QUART) at the Umberto I Hospital in Mestre, Italy. The patients with positive nodes (N+) were treated with adjuvant chemotherapy (CMF) or hormonotherapy (Tamoxifen) according to pausal status. Most patients were in the 5th, 6th and 7th decades of life; 60.5% of them were over 50. Staging was always performed according to TNM classification (UICC criteria) and demonstrated mostly stage-I lesions (66.9%). Overall and disease-free (NED) survival rates were 95%; mean survival rates were 7.47 (+/- 0.138) and 7.22 (+/- 0.164) years, respectively. Ten patients died (5 from breast cancer); 6 local relapses were observed and 8 metastases. Metastases were seen mostly in patients with breast cancer in the internal quadrants (QI) N0, with no statistically significant differences relative to the other groups. This is probably due to the existence of an axillary pN0 and parasternal N+ group of patients, who receive insufficient treatment.