Background: Breast cancer is the most life- threatening cancer, as it remains
leading cause of women death among less developed countries, however in
developed countries. Based on radiobiological models, it was evident that
hypofractionated radiation schedules used as adjuvant treatment for breast
cancer offer equivalent local control to standard conventional radiation therapy
by giving larger doses per fraction in shorter period of time.
Patients & Methods: This retrospective study included 50 female patients with
early stage (T1-2 N0-1 M0) breast cancer who underwent breast conservative
surgery. All patients received adjuvant radiotherapy at the radiotherapy
department of South Egypt Cancer Institute (SECI), Assiut University, Egypt,
between 2013 and 2016. All patients received post-operative chemotherapy then
adjuvant whole breast radiotherapy (42.5GY/16 fractions) with once weekly
concomitant photon boost of 1 GY for 3 weeks (total boost dose 3GY) with
whole radiotherapy schedule period of 16 days (3 weeks). The patients were
followed up for 60 months.
Results: The 5 years disease free survival was 94% and the local recurrence
2%, distant metastasis 4%, and 5 years overall survival was 96%. Cosmetic
outcome was Excellent or good in most of cases, with few poor and fair
outcomes.
Conclusion: hypofractionation with integrated boost as adjuvant treatment for
breast cancer is an acceptable option that provides excellent local control and
low toxicity. Hypofractionated whole breast irradiation with concomitant
weekly boost appears feasible and safe.