title: Breast-conserving surgery with or without irradiation in women aged 65 years or older with early breast cancer (PRIME II): a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  For most older women with early breast cancer, standard treatment after breast-conserving surgery is adjuvant whole-breast radiotherapy and adjuvant endocrine treatment. We aimed to assess the effect omission of whole-breast radiotherapy would have on local control in older women at low risk of local recurrence at 5 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between April 16, 2003, and Dec 22, 2009, 1326 women aged 65 years or older with early breast cancer judged low-risk (ie, hormone receptor-positive, axillary node-negative, T1-T2 up to 3 cm at the longest dimension, and clear margins; grade 3 tumour histology or lymphovascular invasion, but not both, were permitted), who had had breast-conserving surgery and were receiving adjuvant endocrine treatment, were recruited into a phase 3 randomised controlled trial at 76 centres in four countries. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to either whole-breast radiotherapy (40-50 Gy in 15-25 fractions) or no radiotherapy by computer-generated permuted block randomisation, stratified by centre, with a block size of four. The primary endpoint was ipsilateral breast tumour recurrence. Follow-up continues and will end at the 10-year anniversary of the last randomised patient. Analyses were done by intention to treat. The trial is registered on ISRCTN.com, number ISRCTN95889329.
  
  
  RESULTS
  658 women who had undergone breast-conserving surgery and who were receiving adjuvant endocrine treatment were randomly assigned to receive whole-breast irradiation and 668 were allocated to no further treatment. After median follow-up of 5 years (IQR 3·84-6·05), ipsilateral breast tumour recurrence was 1·3% (95% CI 0·2-2·3; n=5) in women assigned to whole-breast radiotherapy and 4·1% (2·4-5·7; n=26) in those assigned no radiotherapy (p=0·0002). Compared with women allocated to whole-breast radiotherapy, the univariate hazard ratio for ipsilateral breast tumour recurrence in women assigned to no radiotherapy was 5·19 (95% CI 1·99-13·52; p=0·0007). No differences in regional recurrence, distant metastases, contralateral breast cancers, or new breast cancers were noted between groups. 5-year overall survival was 93·9% (95% CI 91·8-96·0) in both groups (p=0·34). 89 women died; eight of 49 patients allocated to no radiotherapy and four of 40 assigned to radiotherapy died from breast cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Postoperative whole-breast radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery and adjuvant endocrine treatment resulted in a significant but modest reduction in local recurrence for women aged 65 years or older with early breast cancer 5 years after randomisation. However, the 5-year rate of ipsilateral breast tumour recurrence is probably low enough for omission of radiotherapy to be considered for some patients.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Chief Scientist Office (Scottish Government), Breast Cancer Institute (Western General Hospital, Edinburgh).
authors: Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: i.kunkler@ed.ac.uk.
authors: Ian H
authors: IH
authors: Kunkler
authors: Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
authors: Linda J
authors: LJ
authors: Williams
authors: Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
authors: Wilma J L
authors: WJ
authors: Jack
authors: Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
authors: David A
authors: DA
authors: Cameron
authors: Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
authors: J Michael
authors: JM
authors: Dixon
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001315:Australia; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery*; D059186:Chemoradiotherapy, Adjuvant; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057194:Intention to Treat Analysis; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental / Q000009:adverse effects; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018579:Patient Selection; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal