Risk-Adapted Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) for Breast Cancer: A Novel Analysis

Randomized trials have shown that risk-adapted intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) after breast-conserving surgery for low-risk breast cancer patients is a safe alternative to whole-breast radiation therapy (WBRT). The risk-adapted strategy allows additional WBRT for predefined high-risk pathologic characteristics discovered on final histopathology. The greater the percentage of patients receiving WBRT, the lower the recurrence rate. The risk-adapted strategy, although important and necessary, can make IORT appear better than it actually is.

Risk-adapted IORT was used to treat 1600 breast cancers. They were analyzed by the intention-to-treat method and per protocol to better understand the contribution of IORT with and without additional whole-breast treatment. Any ipsilateral breast tumor event was considered a local recurrence.

During a median follow-up period of 63 months, local recurrence differed significantly between the patients who received local treatment and those who received whole-breast treatment. For 1393 patients the treatment was local treatment alone. These patients experienced 79 local recurrences and a 5-year local recurrence probability of 5.95 %. For 207 patients with high-risk final histopathology, additional whole-breast treatment was administered. They experienced two local recurrences and a 5-year local recurrence probability of 0.5 % (p = 0.0009).

Whole-breast treatment works well at reducing local recurrence, and it is a totally acceptable and necessary addition to IORT as part of a risk-adapted program. However, the more whole-breast treatment that is given, the more it dilutes the original plan of simplifying local treatment and the less we understand exactly what IORT contributes to local control as a stand-alone treatment.