Radiation Therapies for Breast Cancer: Current Knowledge on Advantages and Disadvantages

Abstract

In the middle of the 1970s both American and European research groups reported significant benefits with adjuvant chemotherapy in terms of the recurrence-free survival of patients with early-stage breast cancer. Since then there has been a continued emphasis on the use of adjuvant systemic therapy in the primary management of breast cancer. The fact that many radiation therapy studies have failed to show an overall survival benefit has often been used as an argument against radiation therapy. However, local control of the disease through the use of adjuvant radiation should not be underrated because locoregional recurrences decrease the patient’s quality of life and shorten disease-free survival. Recent information also suggests that failure to control the disease locally may compromise overall survival. An unbiased assessment of the role of adjuvant radiation in the primary management of breast cancer should acknowledge the fact that many of the radiation trials reported in the literature used out-dated orthovoltage treatment techniques that are not relevant to current medical practice.