• Wei-Kai Chuang, Skye Hung-Chun Cheng, Chen-Fang Hung, Tzu-Ting Huang, Chung-Wen Jen, Jia-Hua Yen, and Yu-Chen Tsai.
• Department of Radiation Oncology, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Radiation Oncology, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Electronic address: wkfrey@gmail.com.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2022 Aug 1; 121 (8): 1588-1595.

Background/PurposeThis study aimed to analyze the long-term outcomes of hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation (WBI) (HF-WBI) compared with those of conventionally fractionated WBI (CF-WBI) for early breast cancer treated with breast-conservation surgery (BCS) and adjuvant WBI in Taiwan.MethodsThis study included patients treated at our institution between 2012 and 2016. All patients with early breast cancer received BCS (pT1-2, pN0, M0) and adjuvant WBI through one of two treatment schemes. Propensity score matching analysis was conducted to create comparable cohorts. The major result is ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) rates and overall survival rates.ResultsA total of 869 patients with early-stage breast cancer received adjuvant HF-WBI or CF-WBI were included. After matching, 718 patients were separated into two groups of the same number. With a median follow-up of 66 months, seven cases of IBTR were noted (three for CF, four for HF). There were no significant differences between the HF-WBI and CF-WBI groups in 5-year IBTR rates (0.9% vs 0.6%, P = 0.3887, 95% CI [0.25-7.79]) and 5-year overall survival rates (98.1% vs 98.9%, P = 0.4702, 95% CI [0.32-3.49]). In our institution, the use of HF-WBI increased significantly from 5% before 2012 (Q3) to 92% in 2016 (Q4). There was no significant difference in grade 1-2 toxicity between the two treatment groups. Fewer cases of grade 3 skin toxicity noted in the HF-WBI group (zero vs four events).ConclusionHF-WBI had similar IBTR, OS and toxicity to CF-WBI.Copyright © 2022 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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