title: Hypofractionated radiotherapy in carcinoma breast: What we have achieved?
abstract: Healthy breast tissue is sensitive to radiation fraction size, such that small changes in fraction size can lead to larger changes in radiation effects on these tissues. Conventional breast and/or chest wall irradiation uses 2 Gy daily fractions, for 5-6 weeks. Such a long treatment schedule has major implications on both patient quality of life and burden of radiotherapy (RT) departments. Some investigators have hypothesized that breast cancer is as sensitive as normal breast tissue to fraction size. According to the hypothesis, small fraction sizes of 2.0 Gy or less offer no therapeutic advantage, and a more effective strategy would be to deliver fewer, larger fractions that result in a lower total radiation dose. This short (hypofractionated) RT schedule would be more convenient for patients (especially those coming from remote areas to RT facilities) and for healthcare providers, as it would increase the turnover in RT departments. This thought has prompted us to write a systematic review on role of hypofractionated RT in breast cancer in a developing country like ours where patient burden is an alarming problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Tapesh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahajan
authors.forename: Sushmita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghoshal
authors.forename: Budhi Singh
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Yadav
authors.forename: Bhavana
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rai
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy; D061766:Proton Therapy / Q000379:methods; D000069473:Radiation Dose Hypofractionation; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D016896:Treatment Outcome