Electron arc therapy: clinical experience with chest wall irradiation

In order to overcome the technical problems commonly encountered in fixed field photon and electron beam chest wall irradiation, we have treated the chest wall in 22 breast cancer patients with a moving electron beam that rotates about the patient's thorax. This paper discusses the clinical results of chest wall treatment by electron arc therapy. Twenty-one patients were treated following mastectomy, 16 electively because of high risk for local failure, and 5 because of local recurrence. One patient with advanced local-regional disease was treated primarily. During a median follow-up period of 24 months there has been one chest failure in one of the patients treated for local recurrence. No major complications were observed in skin, lung, soft tissue or esophagus, even in the 7 patients recently or concomitantly treated with multiagent cytotoxic chemotherapy. In 3 patients, small areas of telangiectasia developed in the region of abutment of the electron arc field to a photon field used to irradiate the supraclavicular nodal area. We conclude that the technique as applied to these patients is safe and efficacious. In certain clinical settings it has advantage over standard, fixed field approaches to treat the chest wall.