Progress Of Radiotherapy After Breast Conserving Surgery For Early Breast Cancer

Compared with surgery alone, radiotherapy after breast-conservingsurgery for early breast cancer patients can significantly reduce the localrecurrence rate and improve the overall survival. At present, the pattern ofradiotherapy for whole breast and the tumor bed boost is mainly used afterbreast-conserving surgery for early breast cancer patients. But it wasconsidered that a part of low-risk patients was over-treated by theconventional whole breast radiotherapy. Thus, under the assurance of localcontrol rate, to seeking new radiation patterns become the direction ofresearch for breast cancer, such as narrowing the range of irradiation,shortening the treatment time and avoiding unnecessary radiation. In recentyears, clinical studies suggested that the local recurrence ofbreast-conserving surgery for breast cancer mainly occurred near the tumorbed. Thus, researchers proposed to use accelerated partial breast irradiationfor appropriate patients. That means to instead the conventionalradiotherapy by the direct radiation for the tumor bed and the adjacent breast tissue. This article reviews the research progress of the patterns, theranges, the doses and the prognosis of radiotherapy after breast conservingsurgery for early breast cancer.