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Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation Studies Reported at ASTRO

• Hungarian investigators reported a recurrence rate of 0.9% after 2.3 years of follow-up on 221 patients with early-stage breast cancer treated by lumpectomy and either breast brachytherapy or local-field electron radiation. The recurrence rate did not differ among treatment groups.

• Spanish investigators demonstrated the feasibility of high-dose breast brachytherapy as the sole treatment for selected breast cancer patients. The study included 36 patients who had local recurrence after breast-conserving therapy and five postmenopausal women with primary breast tumors. At a median follow up of 71 months, none of the patients with primary tumors had a recurrence. Of the patients who presented with locally recurrent disease, three had new local recurrences, six had regional recurrences, and six had distant metastasis.

• Kuske reported toxicity data from an ongoing Radiation Therapy Oncology Group trial of APBI in 100 women with small, invasive, non-lobular tumors. At a median follow-up of 3.2 years, toxicity consisted of breast erythema in 48 patients, breast edema in 36, breast tenderness in 25, breast pain in 23, and infection in 12. Grade 3-4 toxicity occurred in 5% of patients during APBI, 10% at any follow-up, and 4% at last follow-up. Results did not differ between patients who received high-dose or low-dose APBI.



             
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