Up to 5 years outcomes following intraoperative radiotherapy for early breast cancer

Abstract

Background: Whole breast radiation therapy (WBRT) is the standard of care for early breast cancer after lumpectomy, but it has side effects. For elderly women with good prognostic cancer, intra-operative radiotherapy (IORT) is an alternative. We report our results with IORT. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study to observe clinical outcomes after IORT, between 2012 and 2017. Patients had inclusion criteria for RIOP INCA (French national institute of cancer) (group A) or for TARGIT E (group B). Results: Ninety women were included (91 tumors). The mean age was 73.1 years (range, 56.0-87.0 years) and 95.6% of tumors were under 20 mm. After a median follow-up of 27.4 months (range, 3.0-51.0 months), overall survival was 100%, with two local recurrences out of the 84 tumors followed at least 3 months (2.4%). After IORT, 34.1% of patients had adjuvant WBRT; 70.2% of tumors had fibrosis at least once in the follow-up, 47.6% had cystosteatonecrosis, 25.8% had breast pain grades 1-2, 6% had over grade 2 toxicities, with no grade 4, and 94.0% had good to very good subjective global aspect. Conclusions: IORT is a good alternative to WBRT when ASTRO's guidelines indications are respected, with promising results, but need carry on following up with patients.