Radiation therapy for breast cancer

Prospective randomized studies continue to dominate issues of local regional radiation therapy for breast cancer. The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, designed to assess the role of radiation therapy in the management of breast-conserving surgery for duct carcinoma in situ, has published preliminary results. These results indicate that the use of radiation therapy decreases the local recurrence rate in women with this disease, with a short median follow-up for the entire group so far. The Milan Cancer Institute likewise first reported on their trial assessing the role of radiation therapy in early invasive breast cancer, following a quadrantectomy procedure in the breast as well as an axillary node dissection. Again, radiation therapy significantly decreased the local recurrence rate in the treated breast compared with observation alone. Several important retrospective analyses continue to search for prognostic indicators that might effect the outcome of patients treated with breast-conserving surgery and irradiation. The issue of early age, as well as the issue of sequencing needed adjuvant chemotherapy with whole-breast irradiation was the subject of several articles. Other researchers focused on methods of detection of failure in the irradiated breast, including several innovative studies using magnetic resonance imaging. Documentation of radiation-related treatment sequelae is also reviewed, along with a retrospective study assessing the palliative role of strontium-89 isotope treatment of women with widespread metastatic bone lesions.