Posted: Friday, February 18, 2022
During the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 2399), Joshua Lorenz, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues presented their 5-year results with the use of intraoperative radiotherapy for early-stage breast cancer in a population with a majority of Black women. Although this population is understudied, the results of this trial demonstrated low postoperative complication rates (8.1%), with one observed case of severe toxicity. These findings were also published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics.
“This institutional cohort comprised predominantly of African American women showed acceptable rates of local control and no difference in ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence rates between races,” the study authors concluded. “Future work will examine additional clinicopathologic features and dosimetric data to assess their association with the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence and postoperative complications.”
Data from 257 patients with early-stage, hormone receptor–positive, HER2-nonamplified breast cancer who underwent lumpectomy and intraoperative radiotherapy. Of the total population, 168 participants were Black, 81 were White, and 8 were classified as other. Patient demographics such as race, age, body mass index, dosimetry, and tumor pathology were retrospectively reviewed.
Many individuals (75.6%) had clinical stage IA disease with invasive ductal carcinoma (60.5%). Compared with White women, Black women had a significantly higher pathologic tumor size (1.25 cm vs. 1.69 cm; P = .003). Additionally, White women had a higher instance of postoperative wound complication (13.6% vs. 6.0%; P = .04). Although the maximum point dose to the skin did not appear to correlate with wound complications, there was one grade 3 surgical-site infection that required hospitalization.
The median follow-up was 21 months, and 10 ipsilateral recurrences were observed across all groups. Although there was no significant difference between the number of patients receiving adjuvant therapy in all patients, one death from metastatic breast cancer was reported in a Black patient who declined adjuvant therapy.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit plan.core-apps.com.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics