A 10-year follow-up study of breast cancer patients who had been treated with accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) after surgery showed that their rates of recurrence were similar to those of patients who had received whole breast irradiation (WBI), according to data presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held Dec. 10–14.
The study suggests that the less invasive partial breast procedure may be an acceptable choice for patients with early breast cancer.
Many patients diagnosed with early breast cancer undergo surgery known as a lumpectomy, followed by a course of radiation.
“Postoperative radiation still represents a mainstay of adjuvant treatment for breast cancer, able to significantly reduce the local relapse occurrence rate,” explained the study’s lead author, Icro Meattini, MD, of the University of Florence in Italy.
In recent years, researchers have sought to determine whether APBI might be as effective as WBI in preventing recurrence.
Meattini’s study examined 10-year follow-up data for women enrolled in the APBI IMRT trial, a randomised phase III trial.
The five-year follow-up from the trial showed no significant difference in tumour recurrence or survival rates. The APBI IMRT trial enrolled 520 women over age 40 who had either stage 1 or stage 2 breast cancer.
