The results of the Early Breast Cancer Collaborative Group on the PMRT trial were updated in 2007. Although still preliminary, they found that the benefit of post-radical breast cancer radiotherapy was greater in patients with 1-3 positive lymph nodes than in those with 4 or more positive lymph nodes. In the subgroup of patients with 1-3 positive lymph nodes, the 15-year mortality benefit of postoperative radiotherapy for breast cancer was 10.2 (51.3 vs. 41.1%) compared with a 15-year all-cause mortality benefit of 7.3% (57.2 vs. 49.9%). ยก A 13.5% reduction in the 10-year first recurrence rate was observed in the 1-3 lymph node positive group. In contrast, the 10-year first recurrence rate was 11.5% lower in the group with 4 or more positive lymph nodes. Thus, these constructs and other data suggest that the reduction in local recurrence rate is not a valid intermediate endpoint for long-term survival benefit and that the patient group with the greatest benefit from postoperative radiotherapy is intermediate-risk patients, not high-risk patients.