Objective To evaluate the clinic effect of local resection plus axialla lympha nodes dissection on treating early stage breast cancer. Methods 112 cases of early stage breast cancer in PLA309 Hospital were divided into 2 groups: local resection plus axially dissection group (46 cases) and Halsted's operation group (66 cases). The survival rate,local recurrence rate,metastasis rate, and casmetic effect of breast were followed up for long time. Results In treatment group, the 3,5,8 years survival rates were 97.8%, 80.5%, 76.1% respectively. In control group 3,5,8 years survival rates were 97.0%, 87.9% and 71.2% respectively. The rate of local recurrence was 4.3% in treatment group and 4.6% in control group.The metastasis rate in treatment group was 19.6%, in control group was 16.7%. 93.2% of patients in treatment group kept good breast figure. Conclusions Local resection plus axially dissection, with the same effect as Halsted procedure, is an ideal method in treating early stage breast cancer.