From 1983-88, 97 breast cancers in 94 women were treated with breast-conserving surgery at Haukeland University Hospital. 71 per cent of the tumours were less than 2 cm in diameter and 94 per cent less than 3 cm. 65 had negative axillary nodal status. 90 patients had ductal carcinoma, three of whom also had extensive intraductal carcinoma. Pathological findings in the resection margins (invasive carcinoma, intraductal carcinoma or atypical epithelial hyperplasia) were reasons for reoperation in 14 patients, eight of them by mastectomy. Thus, after completion of initial treatment the breast was preserved in 89 patients. Postoperative irradiation to the breast was given as a routine. Three elderly patients were excepted. Two patients developed ipsilateral breast recurrences after six and 24 months respectively. The first was treated by re-resection and the second by mastectomy. Neither of these showed evidence of distant metastases. Distant metastases were discovered in five patients, two of these have since died.