Intraoperative radiation therapy with electrons in breast cancer conservative treatment: our experience

Radiotherapy plays a central role in the local control of breast cancer following conservative surgery, representing the standard treatment for patients undergoing quadrantectomy or lumpectomy and consisting in 5 or 6 weeks of treatment with a total dose of 45-50 Gy. In the last ten years new trends in radiation therapy have been developing with a new planning of duration and extension of breast tissue to irradiate. Moreover some authors presented the idea of combining the use of intraoperatory radiotherapy with the partial breast irradiation, with the aim of irradiate the breast in a single session during breast conserving surgery. From September 2009 to July 2010 we prospectively enrolled 13 patients to undergo electron beam intraoperative radiotherapy after breast conservative treatment for early breast cancer. At a mean follow-up of 46 months no local recurrences have been described and no patients presented distant metastasis or died for any cause. 6 patients (46.2%) presented complications, as fibrosis and liponecrosis. Our results suggest that electron beam intraoperative radiotherapy in the conservative treatment of breast cancer could be considered a suitable option for low risk patients, even if our sample is very small and we need longer follow-up to draw conclusive results.