title: [Partial breast irradiation (PBI): the therapy of the future?].
abstract: Breast-conserving therapy with radiation therapy of 50 Gy over 5 weeks to the entire breast plus a tumour bed boost is the standard treatment for patients with early stage breast cancer. Several attempts have been made to lower the treatment burden, such as omitting either all radiotherapy or the tumour bed boost, without success. Phase III trials are now being carried out to evaluate the treatment of the primary tumour area only (PBI). Various methods for selection of patient groups and of delivering the radiation dose have been employed. Vaidya et al. report the same favourable local recurrence rates following PBI with single dose intraoperative radiotherapy as with whole-breast irradiation. As the follow-up period so far has been short, long-time results should be awaited.
authors.affiliation: Academisch Medisch Centrum, afd. Radiotherapie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. c.c.koning@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: Caro C E
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Koning
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bijker
authors.forename: Geertjan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: van Tienhoven
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000379:methods*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D017326:Clinical Trials, Phase III as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000517:prevention & control; D018579:Patient Selection; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome