Stage I Breast Cancer in the Modern Era: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 328 Patients Diagnosed from 2002 to 2006 with a 14-Year Median Follow-Up

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to evaluate the long-term outcomes of stage I breast cancer (BC) patients diagnosed during the current era of screening mammography, immunohistochemistry receptor testing, and systemic adjuvant therapy.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 328 stage I BC patients treated consecutively in a single referral center with a follow-up period of at least 12 years. The primary endpoints were invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) and overall survival (OS). The influence of tumor size, grade, and subtype on the outcomes was analyzed.

RESULTS

Most patients were treated by lumpectomy, sentinel node biopsy, and adjuvant endocrine therapy, and most (82%) were of subtype luminal A. Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered to 25.6% of our cohort. Only 24 patients underwent gene expression testing, which was introduced toward the end of the study period. Mean IDFS was 14.64 years, with a 15-year IDFS of 75.6%. Mean OS was 15.28 years with a 15-year OS of 74.9%. In a Cox multivariate analysis, no clinical or pathologic variable impacted on OS and only tumor size (<1 cm vs. 1-2 cm) impacted significantly on IDFS. During follow-up, 20.1% of the cohort developed second primary cancers, including BC. The median time to diagnosis of a second BC was 6.49 years.

CONCLUSION

The study results emphasize the importance of long-term follow-up and screening for subsequent malignancies of patients with stage I BC and support the need for using prognostic and predictive indicators beyond the routine clinicopathological characteristics in luminal A patients.

Assessment of Suspected Breast Lesions in Early-Stage Triple-Negative Breast Cancer during Follow-Up after Breast-Conserving Surgery Using Multiparametric MRI

Background

The local recurrence rate of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) can be as high as 12%.The standard treatment for early-stage TNBC is breast-conserving surgery (BCS), followed by postoperative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy. However, detection of the local recurrence of the disease after radiotherapy is a major issue.

Objective

The aim of this study was at investigating the role of dynamic and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during follow-up after BCS and radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy to differentiate between locoregional recurrence and postoperative fibrosis. Patients and Methods. This prospective study was conducted at the oncology, radiology, and pathology departments, Tanta University. It involved 50 patients with early-stage TNBC who were treated with BCS, followed by radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy. The suspected lesions were evaluated during the follow-up period by sonomammography. All patients were subjected to MRI, including conventional sequences, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and dynamic postcontrast study.

Results

Ten cases were confirmed as recurrent malignant lesions. After contrast administration, they all exhibited irregular T1 hypodense lesions of variable morphology with diffusion restriction and positive enhancement. Eight cases displayed a type III curve, while two showed a type II curve. Histopathological assessment was consistent with the MRI findings in all eight cases. The combination of the data produced by DWI-MRI and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI resulted in 100%sensitivity, 92.5% specificity, 90.9% positive predictive value, 100% negative predictive value, and 98% accuracy.

Conclusion

Combination of DWI-MRI and DCE-MRI could have high diagnostic value for evaluating postoperative changes in patients with TNBC after BCS, followed by radiotherapy with/without chemotherapy. Trial Registrations. No trial to be registered.

Efficacy analysis of intraoperative radiotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer

Background

To analyze the clinical efficacy of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in patients with early-stage breast cancer (BC), and to investigate the relationship between its influencing factors and clinical efficacy and prognosis.

Methods

A total of 73 patients with early-stage BC who underwent IORT after BCS in our hospital were selected in this research.

Results

Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to analyze the related factors of BCS and IORT of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). It was found that only age (χ² = 14.035, P = 0.003) was statistically positively correlated with the patient’s DFS, and local recurrence and metastasis rate and mortality were higher in patients over 70 years old. Log rank test was used to analyze multiple factors. Only the diameter of the applicator (χ² = 70.378, P < 0.05) was statistically significant with wound complications, and the larger the diameter, the higher incidence of wound complications. The remaining risk factors did not increase the incidence of wound complications. COX multivariate analysis showed that age was an independent risk factor for DFS rate and the risk factor had no significant effect on the OS rate of patients undergoing IORT after BCS.

Conclusions

IORT may be a safe form of treatment for the selected patients with early-stage BC, and can achieve satisfactory esthetic effect. Larger applicator diameters may increase the incidence of wound complications. Age is an independent risk factor for DFS in early-stage BC patients undergoing IORT after BCS.

A Network Meta-Analysis of Surgical Treatment in Patients With Early Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND

In early breast cancer treatment, the preferred surgical regimen remains a topic of controversy, and conventional pairwise meta-analysis cannot provide a hierarchy based on clinical trial evidence. Therefore, a network meta-analysis was performed both for direct and indirect comparisons and to assess the survival outcomes of surgical regimens.

METHODS

Randomized clinical trials comparing different surgical regimens for the treatment of early breast cancer were identified. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free-survival (DFS) were analyzed using random-effects network meta-analysis on the hazard ratio (HR) scale and calculated as combined HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). All statistical tests were two-sided.

RESULTS

The network meta-analysis compared 11 different surgical regimens that consisted of 13 and 17 direct comparisons between strategies for OS (34 trials; n = 23 587 patients) and DFS (32 trials; n = 22 552 patients), respectively. The values of surface under the cumulative ranking for OS and DFS after mastectomy (M)+radiotherapy (RT) were observed to be the largest. Breast-conserving surgery (BCS)+axillary node sampling+RT almost achieved the threshold for inferiority compared with the other surgical treatment arms and was statistically significantly associated with worse OS (HR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.24 to 0.94; HR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.22 to 0.92; HR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.23 to 0.96). No statistically significant difference between BCS+sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB)+RT vs BCS+SLNB+intraoperative RT was observed in carrying out network meta-analysis (HR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.64 to 1.36).

CONCLUSIONS

M+RT has the most favorable survival outcomes among the various surgical regimens for the treatment of early breast cancer patients. For patients who receive BCS, SNLB has more favorable outcomes than axillary node sampling. Intraoperative RT and postoperative RT have similar outcomes in patients who receive SLNB.

Recurrence and mortality after breast-conserving surgery without radiation

Background

Breast-conserving surgery (bcs) and radiation therapy (rt) are the standard of care for early breast cancer; studies have demonstrated that adjuvant rt confers a protective effect with respect to recurrence, although no randomized trials have shown a survival benefit.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study used Ontario data linked through ices to examine patients treated for breast cancer between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2014. The primary outcome was death or recurrence. Outcomes were compared between patients who did and did not receive rt.

Results

The total cohort size was 26,279. The hazard ratios (hrs) for various outcomes were significantly higher for patients who did not receive rt than for patients who did: recurrence or death combined [hr: 2.49; 95% confidence interval (ci): 2.25 to 2.75], recurrence (hr: 2.33; 95% ci: 1.91 to 2.84), and death (hr: 2.28; 95% ci: 2.03 to 2.56). The hr for death was 1.81 (95% ci: 1.65 to 1.99) for patients having stage ii cancer compared with those having stage i disease. The hr for death was 1.97 (95% ci: 1.74 to 2.22) for patients having high comorbidity compared with those having little comorbidity.

Conclusions

Adjuvant rt carries a protective effect with respect to recurrence and survival in patients with early-stage breast cancer. That survival benefit has not been appreciated in previous randomized trials and underscores the importance of rt as a component of breast cancer treatment.

Prevention of locoregional recurrence and distant metastasis in Japanese breast cancer patients using Japanese standard postoperative radiation fields: Experience at a single institution

BACKGROUND

Radiotherapy is an effective local control therapy for breast cancer. Locoregional control is associated with distant metastasis risk and survival after surgery.

AIM

We aimed to evaluate whether Japanese standard postoperative radiotherapy after surgery correlates with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival and clarify the characteristics of patients who benefit from it.

METHOD AND RESULTS

This retrospective study included 626 operable breast cancer patients. Tumor characteristics and survival outcomes were compared between patients who received radiotherapy and those who did not. Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to analyze prognostic factors for DFS and perform subgroup analysis. Propensity score matching was used to evaluate the efficacy of radiotherapy using a logistic regression model in patients who received radiotherapy or did not. The median follow-up duration after diagnosis of breast cancer was 63 months. DFS and overall survival were better in the irradiated group (P= .002 and P = .001, respectively). Radiotherapy was more effective for estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease and for early breast cancer without lymph node metastasis. Multivariate analysis revealed that radiotherapy was a dependent risk factor for recurrence or metastasis.

CONCLUSION

Radiotherapy prevents distant metastasis and recurrence in early breast cancer patients. In particular, ER-positive, node-negative patients benefit from Japanese standard tangent field radiation.

The Effect of a Ferrocene Containing Camphor Sulfonamide DK-164 on Breast Cancer Cell Lines

BACKGROUND

Drug resistance is a major cause of cancer treatment failure. Most cancer therapies involve multiple agents, to overcome it. Compounds that exhibit strong anti-tumor effect without damaging normal cells are more and more in the focus of research. Chemotherapeutic drugs, combining different moieties and functional groups in one molecule, can modulate different regulatory pathways in the cell and thus reach the higher efficacy than the agents, which affect only one cellular process.

METHODS

We tested the effect of recently synthesized ferrocene-containing camphor sulfonamide DK-164 on two breast cancer and one breast non-cancer cell lines. The cytotoxic effects were evaluated using the standard MTT-dye reduction and clonogenic assays. The apoptotic or autophagic effects were evaluated by Annexin v binding or LC3 puncta formation assays, respectively. Cell cycle arrest was determined using flow cytometry. Western blot and immunofluorescent analyses were used to estimate the localization and cellular distribution of key regulatory factors NFκB and p53.

RESULTS

Compound DK-164 has well pronounced cytotoxicity greater to cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7) compared to non-cancerous (MCF-10A). The IC50 value of the substance caused a cell cycle arrest in G1 phase and induced apoptosis up to 24 hours in both tumor cells, although being more pronounced in MCF-7, a functional p53 cell line. Treatment with IC50 concentration of the compound provoked autophagy in both tumor lines but is better pronounced in the more aggressive cancer line (MDA-MB-231).

CONCLUSION

The tested compound DK-164 showed promising properties as a potential therapeutic agent.

Controversial issues in radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery for early breast cancer in older patients: a systematic review

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease among older women, and the number of new older patients per year is increasing year by year. Radiotherapy has been confirmed as an important treatment after breast conservation for the reduction of local recurrence and mortality for all patients, including node-positive cases. However, there are fewer clinical trials evaluating the toxicity and benefits of radiotherapy for older patients. Whether radiotherapy can provide substantial benefit for older patients after breast-conserving surgery is controversial. This systematic review will focus on the key aspects of this controversial issue.

Effect of radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in older patients with early breast cancer and breast ductal carcinoma in situ: a meta-analysis

Background

There are no consistent agreements on whether radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) could provide local control and survival benefit for older patients with early breast cancer or breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of radiotherapy after BCS in older patients with early breast cancer or DCIS.

Results

Radiotherapy could reduce the risk of local relapse in older patients with early breast cancer. The 5-year AR of local relapse was 2.2% and 6.2% for radiotherapy and non-radiotherapy group, respectively, with low 5-year ARD of 4.0% and high NNT of 25. The 10-year AR of local relapse was 5.3% and 10.5% for radiotherapy and non-radiotherapy group, respectively, with the 10-year ARD of 5.2% and NNT of 20. However, radiotherapy could not improve survival benefits, including overall survival, cancer-specific survival, breast-cancer-specific survival, and distant relapse. Moreover, radiotherapy could reduce the risk of ipsilateral breast events in older patients with DCIS.

Materials and Methods

PubMed and Embase database were searched for relevant studies. Hazard ratios (HRs), risk ratios (RRs), absolute risk (AR), absolute risk difference (ARD), and number needed to treat (NNT) were used as effect measures to evaluate the efficacy of radiotherapy in older patients.

Conclusions

Our study indicates that radiotherapy could slightly reduce the risk of local relapse in older patients with favorable early breast cancer. However, radiotherapy cannot translate into significant survival benefits.

Role of radiotherapy in women over the age of 65 after breast conserving surgery for breast cancer: A 5-year retrospective study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to analyse the local recurrence (LR) and breast cancer related mortality (BCRM) in older women who underwent breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with and without adjuvant radiotherapy (XRT).

METHODS

This retrospective study included a total of 299 women who underwent BCS for early breast carcinoma, between the years of 2007 and 2011. Predictive risk factors, local recurrence (LR) and breast cancer related mortality (BCRM) were assessed with a mean follow-up period of 84 months.

RESULTS

Women over the age of 65 in the XRT and No-XRT groups showed similar incidence of LR (5.8% vs 5%, p = 0.838). Women over 65 years old with XRT had a higher rate of BCRM (5.8% vs 0%, p = 0.05). Resection margins >5 mm had a lower rate of BCRM (HR 0.395, p = 0.05). Women under the age of 65, invasive ductal carcinoma, grade-3 tumours, HER-2 positive, triple negative, lympho-vascular invasion, axillary lymph node positivity, high breast density on mammography were associated with increased risk of LR and BCRM.

CONCLUSIONS

XRT in women over the age of 65 did not decrease the risk of LR. Adjuvant XRT in older women should be offered to selective patients with high risk patient and tumour factors.

Favorable Outcome with Close Margins in Patients Undergoing Nipple/Skin Sparing Mastectomy with Immediate Breast Reconstruction: 5-year Follow-up

Background:

Implant-based breast reconstruction after mastectomy has recently been reported to be the preferred type of surgery among breast-specific surgeons and plastic surgeons.

Aims:

To explore the significant clinicopathological factors associated with long-term outcome related to local recurrences of the nipple among patients who underwent immediate breast reconstruction with tissue expander or implant after mastectomy.

Study Design:

Retrospective cohort.

Methods:

From January 2007 to January 2013, 51 breast cancer patients who underwent immediate breast reconstruction with tissue expander or implant were retrospectively analysed. Patients’ demographic data, clinicopathological characteristics, and clinical outcome by disease-free survival and disease-specific survival analyses were determined.

Results:

The median follow-up was 64 (31-114) months. Of the 57 mastectomies, 41 were skin sparing mastectomy (72%) and 16 were nipple-areola sparing mastectomy (28%). Immediate breast reconstruction surgery included tissue expander (n=46, 81%) or implant (n=11, 19%) placement. The molecular subgroups of 47 invasive cancers were as follows: luminal A (n=23, 49%), luminal B (n=16, 34%), non-luminal HER2 (n=5, 10.6), triple negative breast cancer (n=3, 6.4%). The 5-years disease-specific survival, disease-free survival, and locoregional recurrence-free survival rates were 96.8%, 90%, and 97.6% respectively. Patients with luminal A cancer were found to have an improved 5-year disease-free survival time than other (luminal A; 100% vs. non-luminal A; 78%; p=0.028). Of the 14 nipple-areola sparing mastectomy, 13 had a close median tumour distance to nipple-areola complex (<20 mm) with a 5-year locoregional recurrence free survival of 100%.

Conclusion:

Immediate breast reconstruction with implant or tissue expander can be safely applied in patients undergoing skin sparing mastectomy or nipple-areola sparing mastectomy. Patients with luminal-A type show the most favourable outcome. During the 5-year follow-up period, patients even with close margins (<20 mm) to nipple-areola complex with nipple-areola sparing mastectomy have excellent locoregional and overall survival when treated by contemporary multidisciplinary oncological management.

A Bayesian network and heuristic approach for systematic characterization of radiotherapy receipt after breast-conservation surgery

BACKGROUND

Breast-conservation surgery with radiotherapy is a treatment highly recommended by the guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. However, several variables influence the final receipt of radiotherapy and it might not be administered to breast cancer patients. Our objective is to propose a systematic framework to identify the clinical and non-clinical variables that influence the receipt of unexpected radiotherapy treatment by means of Bayesian networks and a proposed heuristic approach.

METHODS

We used cancer registry data of Detroit, San Francisco-Oakland, and Atlanta from years 2007-2012 downloaded from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. The samples had patients diagnosed with in situ and early invasive cancer with 14 clinical and non-clinical variables. Bayesian networks were fitted to the data of each region and systematically analyzed through the proposed Zoom-in heuristic. A comparative analysis with logistic regressions is also presented.

RESULTS

For Detroit, patients under stage 0, grade undetermined, histology lobular carcinoma in situ, and age between 26-50 were found more likely to receive breast-conservation surgery without radiotherapy. For stages I, IIA, and IIB patients with age between 51-75, and grade II were found to be more likely to receive breast-conservation surgery with radiotherapy. For San Francisco-Oakland, patients under stage 0, grade undetermined, and age >75 are more likely to receive BCS. For stages I, IIA, and IIB patients with age >75 are more likely to receive breast-conservation surgery without radiotherapy. For Atlanta, patients under stage 0, grade undetermined, year 2011, and primary site C509 are more likely to receive breast-conservation surgery without radiotherapy. For stages I, IIA, and IIB patients in year 2011, and grade III are more likely to receive breast-conservation surgery without radiotherapy.

CONCLUSION

For in situ breast cancer and early invasive breast cancer, the results are in accordance with the guidelines and very well demonstrates the usefulness of the Zoom-in heuristic in systematically characterizing a group receiving a treatment. We found a subset of the population from Detroit with ductal carcinoma in situ for which breast-conservation surgery without radiotherapy was received, but potential reasons for this treatment are still unknown.

[What is the role of intraoperative radiotherapy in breast cancer treatment?]

Breast-conserving surgery followed by whole breast postoperative irradiation is considered to be the current standard treatment for patients with early stage breast cancer. It allows an excellent local tumour control with 6% of local recurrence. Over the last years, partial breast radiotherapy has been developed to reduce treatment volume and duration. Intraoperative radiotherapy is one of the techniques. It offers an excellent delineation of the tumour bed and high normal tissue sparing. This purpose of this review is to describe the different intraoperative radiotherapy techniques available, to assess their potential clinical efficiency and tolerance, the recommendations for new practice with a selected population of patients and for future research.

An international randomised controlled trial to compare TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy (TARGIT) with conventional postoperative radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery for women with early-stage breast cancer (the TARGIT-A trial)

BACKGROUND

Based on our laboratory work and clinical trials we hypothesised that radiotherapy after lumpectomy for breast cancer could be restricted to the tumour bed. In collaboration with the industry we developed a new radiotherapy device and a new surgical operation for delivering single-dose radiation to the tumour bed - the tissues at highest risk of local recurrence. We named it TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy (TARGIT). From 1998 we confirmed its feasibility and safety in pilot studies.

OBJECTIVE

To compare TARGIT within a risk-adapted approach with whole-breast external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) over several weeks.

DESIGN

The TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy Alone (TARGIT-A) trial was a pragmatic, prospective, international, multicentre, non-inferiority, non-blinded, randomised (1 : 1 ratio) clinical trial. Originally, randomisation occurred before initial lumpectomy (prepathology) and, if allocated TARGIT, the patient received it during the lumpectomy. Subsequently, the postpathology stratum was added in which randomisation occurred after initial lumpectomy, allowing potentially easier logistics and a more stringent case selection, but which needed a reoperation to reopen the wound to give TARGIT as a delayed procedure. The risk-adapted approach meant that, in the experimental arm, if pre-specified unsuspected adverse factors were found postoperatively after receiving TARGIT, EBRT was recommended. Pragmatically, this reflected how TARGIT would be practised in the real world.

SETTING

Thirty-three centres in 11 countries.

PARTICIPANTS

Women who were aged ≥ 45 years with unifocal invasive ductal carcinoma preferably ≤ 3.5 cm in size.

INTERVENTIONS

TARGIT within a risk-adapted approach and whole-breast EBRT.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcome measure was absolute difference in local recurrence, with a non-inferiority margin of 2.5%. Secondary outcome measures included toxicity and breast cancer-specific and non-breast-cancer mortality.

RESULTS

In total, 3451 patients were recruited between March 2000 and June 2012. The following values are 5-year Kaplan-Meier rates for TARGIT compared with EBRT. There was no statistically significant difference in local recurrence between TARGIT and EBRT. TARGIT was non-inferior to EBRT overall [TARGIT 3.3%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.1% to 5.1% vs. EBRT 1.3%, 95% CI 0.7% to 2.5%; p = 0.04; P_{non-inferiority} = 0.00000012] and in the prepathology stratum (n = 2298) when TARGIT was given concurrently with lumpectomy (TARGIT 2.1%, 95% CI 1.1% to 4.2% vs. EBRT 1.1%, 95% CI 0.5% to 2.5%; p = 0.31; P_{non-inferiority} = 0.0000000013). With delayed TARGIT postpathology (n = 1153), the between-group difference was larger than 2.5% and non-inferiority was not established for this stratum (TARGIT 5.4%, 95% CI 3.0% to 9.7% vs. EBRT 1.7%, 95% CI 0.6% to 4.9%; p = 0.069; P_{non-inferiority} = 0.06640]. The local recurrence-free survival was 93.9% (95% CI 90.9% to 95.9%) when TARGIT was given with lumpectomy compared with 92.5% (95% CI 89.7% to 94.6%) for EBRT (p = 0.35). In a planned subgroup analysis, progesterone receptor (PgR) status was found to be the only predictor of outcome: hormone-responsive patients (PgR positive) had similar 5-year local recurrence with TARGIT during lumpectomy (1.4%, 95% CI 0.5% to 3.9%) as with EBRT (1.2%, 95% CI 0.5% to 2.9%; p = 0.77). Grade 3 or 4 radiotherapy toxicity was significantly reduced with TARGIT. Overall, breast cancer mortality was much the same between groups (TARGIT 2.6%, 95% CI 1.5% to 4.3% vs. EBRT 1.9%, 95% CI 1.1% to 3.2%; p = 0.56) but there were significantly fewer non-breast-cancer deaths with TARGIT (1.4%, 95% CI 0.8% to 2.5% vs. 3.5%, 95% CI 2.3% to 5.2%; p = 0.0086), attributable to fewer deaths from cardiovascular causes and other cancers, leading to a trend in reduced overall mortality in the TARGIT arm (3.9%, 95% CI 2.7% to 5.8% vs. 5.3%, 95% CI 3.9% to 7.3%; p = 0.099]. Health economic analyses suggest that TARGIT was statistically significantly less costly than EBRT, produced similar quality-adjusted life-years, had a positive incremental net monetary benefit that was borderline statistically significantly different from zero and had a probability of > 90% of being cost-effective. There appears to be little uncertainty in the point estimates, based on deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. If TARGIT were given instead of EBRT in suitable patients, it might potentially reduce costs to the health-care providers in the UK by £8-9.1 million each year. This does not include environmental, patient and societal costs.

LIMITATIONS

The number of local recurrences is small but the number of events for local recurrence-free survival is not as small (TARGIT 57 vs. EBRT 59); occurrence of so few events (< 3.5%) also implies that both treatments are effective and any difference is unlikely to be large. Not all 3451 patients were followed up for 5 years; however, more than the number of patients required to answer the main trial question (n = 585) were followed up for > 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS

For patients with breast cancer (women who are aged ≥ 45 years with hormone-sensitive invasive ductal carcinoma that is up to 3.5 cm in size), TARGIT concurrent with lumpectomy within a risk-adapted approach is as effective as, safer than and less expensive than postoperative EBRT.

FUTURE WORK

The analyses will be repeated with longer follow-up. Although this may not change the primary result, the larger number of events may confirm the effect on overall mortality and allow more detailed subgroup analyses. The TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy Boost (TARGIT-B) trial is testing whether or not a tumour bed boost given intraoperatively (TARGIT) boost is superior to a tumour bed boost given as part of postoperative EBRT.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN34086741 and ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00983684.

FUNDING

University College London Hospitals (UCLH)/University College London (UCL) Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, UCLH Charities, Ninewells Cancer Campaign, National Health and Medical Research Council and German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). From September 2009 this project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 20, No. 73. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

Comparison of radiation dose to the left anterior descending artery by whole and partial breast irradiation in breast cancer patients

Purpose

Breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by whole breast irradiation (WBI) is the standard of care for breast cancer patients. However, there is a risk of coronary events with WBI therapy. In this study, we compared the radiation dose in the left anterior descending artery (LAD) in patients receiving partial breast irradiation (PBI) with WBI.

Material and methods

We evaluated consecutive patients who underwent adjuvant radiotherapy after BCS between October 2008 and July 2014. Whole breast irradiation patients received 50 Gy in fractions of 2 Gy to the entire breast. Partial breast irradiation was performed using multicatheter brachytherapy at a dose of 32 Gy in eight fractions. The mean and maximal cumulative doses to LAD were calculated. The radiotherapeutic biologically effective dose of PBI was adjusted to WBI, and radiation techniques were compared.

Results

Of 379 consecutive patients with 383 lesions receiving radiotherapy (151 WBI and 232 PBI lesions), 82 WBI and 100 PBI patients were analyzed. In WBI patients, the mean and maximal cumulative doses for left-sided breast cancer (2.13 ± 0.11 and 8.19 ± 1.21 Gy, respectively) were significantly higher than those for right-sided (0.37 ± 0.02 and 0.56 ± 0.03 Gy, respectively; p < 0.0001). In PBI patients with left-sided breast cancer, the doses for tumors in inner quadrants or central location (2.54 ± 0.21 and 4.43 ± 0.38 Gy, respectively) were significantly elevated compared to outer quadrants (1.02 ± 0.17 and 2.10 ± 0.29 Gy, respectively; p < 0.0001). After the adjustment, the doses in PBI patients were significantly reduced in patients with tumors only in outer quadrants (1.12 ± 0.20 and 2.43 ± 0.37 Gy, respectively; p = 0.0001).

Conclusions

Tumor control and dose to LAD should be considered during treatment since PBI may reduce the risk of coronary artery disease especially in patients with lateral tumors in the left breast.