Mammographically guided noninvasive breast brachytherapy: Preoperative partial breast radiotherapy markedly improves...

Mammographically based noninvasive image-guided breast brachytherapy (NIBB) partial breast irradiation (PBI) is ideally suited for preoperative treatment. We hypothesize that delivering NIBB PBI to the preoperative tumor volume compared with the postoperative lumpectomy bed would simplify target identification and allow for a reduction in irradiated volume along each orthogonal axis.

Patients with invasive breast cancer treated with NIBB PBI at our institution were identified. Preoperative NIBB treatments were modeled along orthogonal craniocaudal and mediolateral axes with an applicator encompassing the gross lesion plus a 1 cm clinical target volume margin. Preoperative treatment volumes were calculated along each axis using the selected applicator surface area multiplied by the preoperative mammogram separation. The actual applicator size and breast separation from the first fraction of postoperative treatment was used to calculate the postoperative treatment volume. Paired -test was used to compare the preoperative and postoperative treatment separation, area, and volume for each patient.

Forty-eight patients with Stage I-II breast cancer had imaging and treatment data available for review. Along the axis, the mean preoperative treatment volume was significantly less than the mean postoperative treatment volume (116 cm ³ vs. 204 cm ³, respectively; p < 0.0001). Similarly, along the mediolateral axis, the mean preoperative treatment volume was significantly less than the mean postoperative treatment volume (125 cm ³ vs. 216 cm ³, respectively; p < 0001).

Based on our retrospective comparison, PBI delivered using NIBB to the preoperative tumor may reduce the volume of healthy breast tissue receiving radiation as compared with NIBB to the postoperative tumor bed.