Publication
Title
Over-irradiation
Author
Abstract
Decreasing the burden of radiation therapy (RT) for breast cancer includes, next to complete omission, several ways to tailor the extent of RT. Possible options for this include lowering of the total dose, such as selective omission of the boost, hypofractionated RT to shorten the duration of treatment, the selective introduction of partial breast irradiation and anatomy based target volume contouring to decrease the size of the irradiated volumes. Elective regional nodal irradiation showed in several randomised trials and meta-analyses to significantly impact on local-regional control, disease-free survival, breast cancer mortality and overall survival. The generalisability of these results remains complex in the light of the decreasing use of axillary lymph node dissection, the use of more effective adjuvant systemic therapy, the increasing use of primary systemic therapy and continuously improving RT techniques. In general, the use of RT compensates for the decreasing extent of surgery to the breast and the axillary lymph nodes, eliminating residual tumour cells while maintaining better aesthetic and functional results. In some occasions, however, the indications for the extent of RT have to be based on limited pathological staging information. Research is ongoing to individualise RT more on the basis of biological factors including gene expression profiles. When considering age, treatment decisions should rather be based on biological instead of formal age. The aim of this review article is to put current evidence into the right perspective, and to search for an appropriate appreciation of the balance between efficacy and side effects of local-regional RT. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Language
English
Source (journal)
The Breast. - Edinburgh
Publication
Edinburgh : 2017
ISSN
0960-9776
DOI
10.1016/J.BREAST.2016.07.022
Volume/pages
31 (2017) , p. 295-302
ISI
000390586600046
Pubmed ID
27522160
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Publication type
Subject
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 08.11.2021
Last edited 05.12.2024
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