Optimal management of locally advanced breast cancer is controversial. Claims of superiority for neoadjuvant systemic therapy are based on comparisons with outdated historical control groups who received no chemotherapy. Between 1978 and 1987, 118 patients with locally advanced breast cancer underwent treatment and follow-up at the Medical College of Virginia. Median follow-up was 44 months (range 3-119 months). Actuarial 5-year survival for the entire group was 54%. This compares favorably with recent series using neoadjuvant chemotherapy in which 5-year survival rates of 40-65% have been reported. Primary tumor size larger than 9 cm, metastases to more than 50% of regional lymph nodes, and the presence of inflammatory disease were significant prognostic indicators. This series represents a contemporary control group of patients with locally advanced breast cancer in whom conventionally accepted guidelines for local and postoperative systemic adjuvant therapy were used. Until the optimal sequence of therapy is determined by prospective randomized trials, series such as this may serve as more appropriate controls to which the results of new therapies could be compared.