The aim of follow-up is essentially that of diagnosing possible recidivation at a relatively early and practically asymptomatic stage in order to optimise the results of appropriate treatment and to improve both the overall survival rate and the patient's quality of life. In spite of the correct and systematic planning of controls, the authors underline that in their experience only 64.7% of relapses are diagnosed during the asymptomatic phase. However, the authors have confirmed that the expectation of relapse has a barely significant influence on survival. After five years of first receiving treatment, 83% of patients with relapses diagnosed in a symptomatic phase had died, compared to 81.7% of those with relapses diagnosed during the asymptomatic phase. In conclusion, in spite of the fact that it is possible to obtain early diagnosis of recidivation during follow-up, it is equally true that this has no influence at all on the survival rate. However, irrespective of these results, the authors maintain that it is useful to follow patients undergoing breast surgery through a periodic follow-up to evaluate the evolution of disease and acquire an increasingly precise and definite knowledge of its natural history. The authors put forward a protocol for follow-up in which patients are divided into groups on the basis of lymph node status and pre- or postmenopause.