• Csaba Polgár, János Fodor, Tibor Major, György Németh, Katalin Lövey, Zsolt Orosz, Zoltán Sulyok, Zoltán Takácsi-Nagy, and Miklós Kásler.
• Department of Radiotherapy, National Institute of Oncology, Budapest, Hungary. polgar@oncol.hu
• Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 2007 Nov 1; 69 (3): 694-702.

PurposeTo report the 5-year results of a randomized study comparing the survival and cosmetic results of breast-conserving treatment with partial breast irradiation (PBI) or conventional whole breast irradiation (WBI).Methods And MaterialsBetween 1998 and 2004, 258 selected patients with T1 N0-1mi, Grade 1-2, nonlobular breast cancer without presence of extensive intraductal component and resected with negative margins were randomized after breast-conserving surgery to receive 50 Gy/25 fractions WBI (n = 130) or PBI (n = 128). The latter consisted of either 7 x 5.2 Gy high-dose-rate (HDR) multicatheter brachytherapy (BT; n = 88) or 50 Gy/25 fractions electron beam (EB) irradiation (n = 40).ResultsAt a median follow-up of 66 months, the 5-year actuarial rate of local recurrence was 4.7% and 3.4% in the PBI and WBI arms, respectively (p = 0.50). There was no significant difference in the 5-year probability of overall survival (94.6% vs. 91.8%), cancer-specific survival (98.3% vs. 96.0%), and disease-free survival (88.3% vs. 90.3%). The rate of excellent to good cosmetic result was 77.6% in the PBI group (81.2% after HDR BT; 70.0% after EB) and 62.9% in the control group (52.2% after telecobalt; 65.6% after 6-9-MV photons; p(WBI/PBI) = 0.009).ConclusionsPartial breast irradiation using interstitial HDR implants or EB to deliver radiation to the tumor bed alone for a selected group of early-stage breast cancer patients produces 5-year results similar to those achieved with conventional WBI. Significantly better cosmetic outcome can be achieved with carefully designed HDR multicatheter implants compared with the outcome after WBI.

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