Intraoperative radiotherapy as accelerated partial breast irradiation for early breast cancer: Beware of one-stop shops?

Marie Luise Sautter-Bihl*, Felix Sedlmayer, Wilfried Budach, Jürgen Dunst, Rita Engenhart- Cabillic, Rainer Fietkau, Petra Feyer, Wulf Haase, Wolfgang Harms, Claus Rödel, Rainer Souchon, Frederik Wenz, Rolf Sauer

*Corresponding author for this work
31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) was originally introduced in breast cancer treatment as an "anticipated boost" during the procedure of breast conserving surgery (BCS). In addition to whole breast irradiation (WBI), it has yielded excellent long-term results [31, 38]. Under the assumption that the majority of in-breast tumor recurrences (IBTR) occur in the originally affected site, accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) as the sole treatment modality was initiated in several studies and with different techniques, one of which was IORT first with electrons, later also with conventional x-rays [29]. The question whether and for whom the gold standard of WBI may be replaced by APBI - especially IORT - alone has recently been one of the most controversial issues of adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. Two recently published studies by Veronesi et al. [36] and Vaidya et al. [35] presenting shortterm results of single shot IORT with electrons (ELIOT) and with an orthovoltage system (TARGIT), respectively, have further invigorated this discussion as illustrated by several letters to the editor commenting on the TARGIT study. While Vaidya et al. [35] indicate their results of IORT alone as "an alternative to WBI for selected patients" and one editorial even proclaims it as standard [6], all the authors of the respective letters [10, 16, 27, 33] strongly disagree with this conclusion. The present editorial comments on the two publications and, furthermore, provides respective statements of the breast cancer expert panel of the German Society of Radiation Oncology (DEGRO).

Original languageEnglish
JournalStrahlentherapie und Onkologie
Volume186
Issue number12
Pages (from-to)651-657
Number of pages7
ISSN0179-7158
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2010

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Intraoperative radiotherapy as accelerated partial breast irradiation for early breast cancer: Beware of one-stop shops?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this