A supplemental boost of radiation cuts breast cancer recurrence in women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who receive whole-breast radiation therapy (WBRT) following lumpectomy, according to a presentation at the recent American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) conference in Boston.
The boost treatment consists of four to eight fractions delivered to the surgical bed after WBRT, according to the group led by Dr. Meena Savur Moran of Yale University.
Moran and colleagues included 4,131 cases of DCIS; 2,661 women received the radiation boost and 1,470 did not. Survival free from ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) in women who had the boost was 97.1% at five years, 94.1% at 10 years, and 91.6% at 15 years following WBRT. For those women who did not have the radiation boost, IBTR-free survival was 96.3% at five years, 92.5% at 10 years, and 88% at 15 years following WBRT.
"Our findings suggest that adding several additional fractions of radiation directed to the lumpectomy cavity after whole-breast radiation for DCIS provides an incremental benefit in decreasing local relapse," Moran said in a statement released by ASTRO. "Ultimately, these small decreases ... reduced the number of mastectomies for recurrence by approximately 40% in patients who had received a boost, compared with no boost."
