Intraoperative radiation therapy for early stage breast cancer

We report our experiences with Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) among breast cancer (BC) patients in our region.

All patients who received radical IORT from April 2014 on to March 2020 were included in the study. Patient selection criteria included: Age equal or older than 45 years old; All cases of invasive carcinomas (in cases of lobular carcinomas only with MRI and confirmation); Patients who were 45-50 years old with a tumor size of 0-2 cm, 50-55 years old with a tumor size of < 2.5 cm, and those who were ≥ 55 years old with a tumor size of < 3 cm; Invasive tumors only with a negative margin; Negative nodal status (exception in patients with micrometastasis); A positive estrogen receptor status. Primary endpoints included death and recurrence which were assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Overall, 252 patients entered the study. Mean (SD) age of patients was 56.43 ± 7.79 years. In total, 32.9% of patients had a family history of BC. Mean (SD) tumor size was 1.56 ± 0.55 cm. Mean (IQR) follow-up of patients was 36.3 ± 18.7 months. Overall, 8 patients (3.1%) experienced recurrence in follow-up visits (disease-free-survival of 96.1%), among which four (1.5%) were local recurrence, two (0.8%) were regional recurrence and two patients (0.8%) had metastasis. Median (IQR) time to recurrence was 46 (22, 53.7) months among the eight patient who had recurrence. Overall, one patient died due to metastasis in our series. Eleven patients (4.3%) with DCIS in our study received IORT. All these patients had free margins in histopathology examination and none experienced recurrence.

Inhere we reported our experience with the use of IORT in a region where facilities for IORT are limited using our modified criteria for patient selection.