title: Seventeen years experience with accelerated radiotherapy for carcinoma of the breast.
abstract: Between 1973 and 1989, one hundred and three women received accelerated radiotherapy to the breast. Fifteen of them had the treatment after local tumor removal; the rest had primary radiotherapy for inoperable cancer. Eleven patients were irradiated twice a day, 83 three times a day, and nine four times a day. The overall time was five days in 52 courses, 7-15 days in 49 courses, and two patients had a longer regime. Actuarial local tumor control was 34.6% at five, and 24.7% at ten years in the whole group, and 25.5% and 14.6%, respectively, in the patients with macroscopical disease. Crude local control in the latter patients was achieved in 24.4% after a five day course, 28.8% after 7 to 11 days course, and 50% after a time of 12 or more days. Crude local control after total dose of less than 40 Gy was 15.8%, after 40-45 Gy, 31.7%, after 45.1-50 Gy, 33.3%, and after more than 50 Gy, 100% (four patients). Sixty patients were evaluable for late damage at 18 months; twenty three of them developed moderate changes. Six suffered severe late damage such as skin leathering or necrosis: three of them were treated for recurrence after previous radiotherapy. The main factor influencing tumor control was not the overall treatment time, but the total dose.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, St. Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth Hants, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: V H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Svoboda
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krawczyk
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krawczyk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D015996:Survival Rate