title: Hypofractionated radiotherapy for early breast cancer: Review of phase III studies.
abstract: Breast-conserving surgery including whole breast irradiation has long been a recommended procedure for early breast cancer. However, conventionally fractionated radiotherapy requires a lengthy hospitalisation or prolonged commuting to a hospital for radiotherapy. In recent years, hypofractionated radiotherapy has increasingly been used. This method involves higher fraction doses (above 2 Gy) as compared to conventional radiotherapy, so the total dose can be delivered in fewer fractions and in a shorter overall treatment time. This review aims at presenting most important outcomes of four randomised studies comparing conventional and hypofractionated radiotherapy schemes including a total of 7000 patients. These studies have not shown apparent differences in treatment efficacy, incidence of late post-radiotherapy complications or cosmetic effects during a 5-10 year follow-up, but longer observation is warranted to fully evaluate the safety of this method. Currently, major societies consider modestly hypofractionated radiotherapy schemes as a routine management in selected groups of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery. However, this method should be used cautiously in patients with lymph node metastases, big breasts, receiving chemotherapy or trastuzumab, or those under 50 years of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kacprowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jassem
keywords: Adjuvant radiotherapy; Breast cancer; Hypofractionated radiotherapy