Brachytherapy-based partial breast irradiation is associated with low rates of complications and excellent cosmesis

Recent retrospective, claims-based analyses have suggested a potential increased rate of toxicities associated with brachytherapy-based accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI). The purpose of this analysis was to examine cosmesis and toxicity data from the prospective American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBS) breast brachytherapy registry trial to compare to the findings from the claims analyses.

The ASBS breast brachytherapy registry is a prospective nonblinded multi-institutional registry trial. Patients with Stage 0-II breast cancer undergoing breast conserving therapy were eligible. A total of 1665 patients were enrolled and 1449 treated between 2002 and 2004 with a median followup of 63 months. All patients were treated with the MammoSite (Hologic, Inc.) single-lumen device to deliver adjuvant APBI (34Gy in 3.4Gy fractions).

The rate of excellent/good cosmesis was 90.6% at 84 months. The rate of a complication (symptomatic seroma, infection, fat necrosis, telangiectasias) at 1 year/any time point was 24.2%/38.5%, whereas the rate of noninfectious complications at 1 year/any time point was 14.8%/28.9%. The rate of symptomatic seroma, fat necrosis, infection, and telangiectasia at any time was 13.4%, 2.5%, 9.6%, and 13.0%, respectively.

The final toxicity analysis from ASBS breast brachytherapy registry trial confirms the previously noted excellent cosmesis and toxicity profiles and fails to confirm retrospective claims analyses that have suggested higher rates of toxicity for brachytherapy-based APBI.