Breast Conservation Treatment – A Peek into the Past

Background: Surgery plays a pivotal role in the primary management of breast cancer. Breast conservation therapy (BCT) and mastectomy are well-established local therapies for early-stage (I + II) invasive breast cancer and have equivalent survival and recurrence outcomes. Due to equivalent survival outcomes with an added cosmetic benefit for BCT, an increasing number of patients are seeking BCT. This calls for a glimpse into the survival outcomes in patients who have undergone BCT. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients who have undergone BCT and to correlate survival outcome with patient, tumor, and treatment-related factors. Materials and Methods: This study summarizes the survival aspects of breast cancer patients who have undergone breast conservation surgery (BCS) followed by radiation treatment by an Elekta Compact AU 046 6 MV linear accelerator in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. Results and Conclusions: Radiation therapy forms an integral part of breast conservation treatment. Among the 42 patients enrolled, 3 were lost to follow up, so 39 patients were included in the survival analysis. Whole breast dose of 50 Gy/25F/5 weeks or 42.5 Gy/16F/3.1 weeks is adequate. Decision on boost can be taken after careful consideration of all high-risk factors. Local control rate was 100 percent in our study. DFS ranged from 12 to 200 months. OS benefit is higher in hormone receptor positive tumors. No statistically significant correlation was found between DFS and any of the demographic, tumor, or treatment-related factors.