title: Radiation therapy for breast cancer: Literature review.
abstract: Concave shape with variable size target volume makes treatment planning for the breast/chest wall a challenge. Conventional techniques used for the breast/chest wall cancer treatment provided better sparing of organs at risk (OARs), with poor conformity and uniformity to the target volume. Advanced technologies such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) improve the target coverage at the cost of higher low dose volumes to OARs. Novel hybrid techniques present promising results in breast/chest wall irradiation in terms of target coverage as well as OARs sparing. Several published data compared these technologies for the benefit of the breast/chest wall with or without nodal volumes. The aim of this article is to review relevant data and identify the scope for further research in developing optimal treatment plan for breast/chest wall cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Global Hospitals, Chennai, India; School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, India. Electronic address: karthik.balaji85@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Karunakaran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Balaji
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Global Hospitals, Chennai, India.
authors.forename: Balaji
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Human Oncology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI and Aspirus UW Cancer Center, Wisconsin Rapids, WI.
authors.forename: Poonam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yadav
authors.affiliation: School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Chandrasekaran
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anu Radha
authors.affiliation: School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Velayudham
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramasubramanian
mesh_terms: D001940:Breast / Q000528:radiation effects; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D058958:Organs at Risk; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Breast; Chest wall; Hybrid; IMRT; VMAT