title: The changing role of radiation therapy in the treatment of primary breast cancer.
abstract: The role of radiation in the management of breast cancer has seen extraordinary change in the past 15 years. The primary treatment of early breast cancer once required mastectomy. Today, a local tumor excision followed by postoperative radiation is an established alternative of equal efficacy. Postoperative chest wall and/or lymphatic irradiation was once nearly routine following mastectomy; later, as adjuvant chemotherapy came into widespread use, its usage declined markedly. Today however, evidence is mounting that the addition of postoperative radiation to adjuvant chemotherapy and surgery can improve local-regional control and survival in selected subsets of these patients. In unresectable breast cancer, radiation was once the primary modality of treatment. Today it is part of a combined modality approach attempting to reduce these patients' high rates of both distant and local-regional failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology, University of Minnesota Hospital, Minneapolis 55455.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Monyak
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Levitt
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents