• T Feyerabend, G J Wiedemann, B Jäger, H Vesely, B Mahlmann, and E Richter.
• Department of Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Medical University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. feyerab@stnuk.mu-luebeck.de
• Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 2001 Apr 1; 49 (5): 1317-25.

PurposeTo investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of radiochemothermotherapy (triple-modality therapy) in patients with inoperable recurrent breast cancer.Patients And MethodsPatients with inoperable recurrent lesions, World Health Organization (WHO) performance status of 2 or greater, life expectancy of more than 3 months, adequate bone marrow, hepatic and renal function were eligible for this Phase I/II study. Conventionally fractionated or hyperfractionated radiotherapy (RT) was performed. Once-weekly local hyperthermia (HT) combined with chemotherapy (CT; epirubicin 20 mg/m(2), ifosfamide 1.5 g/m(2)) was applied within 30 min after RT.ResultsTwenty-five patients, all heavily pretreated (18/25 preirradiated), received a mean total dose of 49 Gy. The median number of HT/CT sessions was 4. Skin toxicity was low, whereas bone marrow toxicity was significant (leucopenia Grade 3/4 in 14/1 patients). The overall response rate was 80% with a complete response (CR) rate of 44%. Response rates in patients with noninflammatory disease (n = 14; CR 10 patients, partial response [PR] 3 patients) were far better than in patients with inflammatory disease (n = 11; CR 1 patient, PR 6 patients).ConclusionsIn patients with recurrent breast cancer, triple-modality therapy is feasible with acceptable toxicity. High remission rates can be achieved in noninflammatory disease, however, local control is limited to a few months. Whether the addition of chemotherapy has a clear-cut advantage to radiothermotherapy alone remains an open question.

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