Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 19;15(12):3239.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15123239.

Full-Dose Intraoperative Electron Radiotherapy for Early Breast Cancer: Evidence from a Single Center's Experience

Antonio Stefanelli  1 , Eleonora Farina  1 , Edoardo Mastella  2 , Sara Fabbri  2 , Alessandro Turra  2 , Simona Bonazza  3 , Alessandro De Troia  3 , Margherita K Radica  3 , Paolo Carcoforo  3
Affiliations

Full-Dose Intraoperative Electron Radiotherapy for Early Breast Cancer: Evidence from a Single Center's Experience

Antonio Stefanelli et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

To evaluate the clinical response rate and cosmetic outcome after full-dose intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT) in early breast cancer (BC) treated with conserving surgery. Inclusion criteria were: >60 years old, clinical tumor size ≤2 cm, luminal A carcinoma, patological negative lymph nodes, excluded lobular carcinoma histology. IOERT was delivered with a dose of 21 Gy at 90% isodose. Clinical, cosmetic and/or instrumental follow-up were performed 45 days after IOERT, 6 months after the first check, and every 12 months thereafter. Acute and late toxicities were assessed with the CTCAE v.4.03 and EORTC-RTOG scales, respectively. Cosmetic outcome was evaluated using the Harvard/NSABO/RTOG Breast Cosmesis Grading Scale. Overall, 162 consecutive patients were included in this analysis (median follow-up: 54 months, range: 1-98 months). The overall response rate was 97.5% (CI 95%: 0.93-0.99%). Locoragional relapse occurred in 2.5% of patients. No patient showed distant metastases. No patient showed radiation-related acute complications, with 3.7% showing late G2-3 toxicity. Only 3.7% of patients showed poor cosmetic results. Our data confirmed that IOERT is a feasible and valid therapeutic option in low-risk BC patients treated with lumpectomy. A low local recurrence rate combined with good cosmetic results validates the settings of our operative method in routinely clinical practice.

Keywords: breast cancer; early stage; intraoperative radiotherapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A): preparation of the chest protection disk with dosimetric film; (B): measurement of the depth of the breast parenchyma; (C): docking maneuver; (D): docking done; (E): ready for dose delivery.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier curves of survival endpoints. Top panel: overall survival; central panel: disease-free survival; bottom panel: patient at risk.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sung H., Ferlay J., Siegel R.L., Laversanne M., Soerjomataram I., Jemal A., Bray F. Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries. CA Cancer J. Clin. 2021;71:209–249. doi: 10.3322/caac.21660. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Łukasiewicz S., Czeczelewski M., Forma A., Baj J., Sitarz R., Stanisławek A. Breast Cancer—Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Classification, Prognostic Markers, and Current Treatment Strategies—An Updated Review. Cancers. 2021;13:4287. doi: 10.3390/cancers13174287. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Joshi S.C., A Khan F., Pant I., Shukla A. Role of radiotherapy in early breast cancer: An overview. Int. J. Health Sci. 2007;1:259–264. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Veronesi U., Orecchia R., Luini A., Gatti G., Intra M., Zurrida S., Ivaldi G., Tosi G., Ciocca M., Tosoni A., et al. A preliminary report of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) in limited-stage breast cancers that are conservatively treated. Eur. J. Cancer. 2001;37:2178–2183. doi: 10.1016/S0959-8049(01)00285-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vaidya J.S., Baum M., Tobias J.S., D’Souza D.P., Naidu S.V., Morgan S., Metaxas M., Harte K.J., Sliski A.P., Thomson E. Targeted intra-operative radiotherapy (Targit): An innovative method of treatment for early breast cancer. Ann. Oncol. 2001;12:1075–1080. doi: 10.1023/A:1011609401132. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources