The term IORT (intraoperative radiotherapy) is currently used for various techniques that show huge differences in dose delivery and coverage of the tissue at risk. The largest evidence for boost ...IORT preceding whole breast irradiation (WBI) originates from intraoperative electron treatments (IOERT) with single doses around 10 Gy. At median follow-up periods at 6 years, outstandingly low local recurrence rates of less than 1% are observed. Higher local relapse rates were described for G3 tumors and triple negative breast cancers as well as for IORT following primary systemic treatment for locally advanced tumors. Even there, long term (>5y) local tumor control rates mostly beyond 95% were maintained. Compared to other boost methods, an intraoperative treatment has evident advantages in terms of precision (by avoiding a "spatial and/or temporal miss"), cosmetic outcome and patient comfort. Direct visualisation of a tumor bed during surgery guarantees for an accurate dose delivery, which has additionally gained importance in times of primary reconstruction techniques after lumpectomy, since IORT is performed before breast tissue including parts of the tumor bed is mobilized for plastic purposes. As a consequence of direct tissue exposure without distension by hematoma/seroma, IORT allows for small treatment volumes and complete skin sparing, both having a positive effect on late tissue tolerance and, hence, cosmetic appearance. Boost IORT marginally prolongs the surgical procedure, while significantly shortening postoperative radiotherapy. Its combination with external beam radiotherapy to the whole breast (WBI) is currently tested in two multicentric prospective trials: as kV-IORT in the multicentric TARGIT-B (oost) study, and as IOERT in the HIOB trial (3 weeks hypofractionated WBI preceded by IORT electron boost).
•Overall treatment tolerance of HWBI plus IOERT as a boost is excellent.•Acute and late toxicity are mild.•Postoperative cosmetic appearance is not impaired.•T-size, tube diameter, age and fibrosis ...are negative predictors for breast cosmesis.
To assess the role of intraoperative radiation with electrons (IOERT) as tumor bed boost followed by hypofractionated whole breast irradiation (HWBI) after breast conserving surgery (BCS) of patients with low to intermediate risk breast cancer focusing on acute/late toxicity and cosmetic outcome.
In 2011, a prospective multicenter trial (NCT01343459) was started. Treatment consisted of BCS, IOERT (11.1 Gy) and HWBI (40.5 Gy in 15 fractions). In a single-arm design, 5-year IBR-rates are benchmarked by a sequential ratio test (SQRT) against best published evidences in 3 age groups (35–40 y, 41–50 y, >50 y). Acute/late toxicity and cosmesis were evaluated by validated scorings systems.
Of 627 eligible patients, 44 were excluded, leaving 583 to analyze. After a median follow-up (FUP) of 45 months (range 0–74), for acute effects CTCAE-score 0/1 was noted in 91% (end of HWBI) and 92% (4 weeks later), respectively. Late toxicity Grading 0/1 (mean values, ranges) by LENT-SOMA criteria were observed in 92.7% (89–97.3) at 4/5 months, rising to 96.5% (91–100) at 6 years post HWBI. Baseline cosmesis after wound healing prior to HWBI was scored as excellent/good in 86% of cases by subjective (patient) and in 74% by objective (doctor) assessment with no impairment thereafter.
Acute and late treatment tolerance of a combined Boost-IOERT/HWBI regimen is excellent in short/mid-term assessment. Postoperative cosmetic appearance is not impaired after 3 years FUP.
Abstract
Background: Despite increasing evidence disfavoring axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for locoregional control, it remains part of guidelines for breast cancer (BC) treatment. In an ...attempt to re-evaluate standard local therapy, the INSEMA trial was designed to assess non-inferiority of avoiding sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) or completion ALND (cALND) in early-stage clinically node-negative BC patients. Here we present PROs from the INSEMA trial. Methods: INSEMA (NCT02466737) investigates non-inferiority of invasive disease-free survival (iDFS) after no axillary surgical staging versus SLNB (first randomization 1:4) in patients with clinically node-negative BC (tumor size ≤5 cm) and primary breast-conserving surgery (BCS). In case of pN1a(sn) in the SLNB arm, patients underwent a second randomization to either SLNB alone or cALND (1:1). PROs were assessed at baseline (pre-surgery) and at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months after final axillary surgery using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast cancer (BR23) module. Higher scores of C30 and BR23 (range 0-100) indicate better functioning and global health status (GHS)/quality of life (QoL) or worse symptom severity, respectively. The QoL scores were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test based on the safety set. Results: Between September 2015 and April 2019, 5,502 patients were recruited for the 1st randomization and 5,173 of them were included in the intent-to-treat set (4,138 SLNB vs 1,035 no SLNB). Patient and tumor characteristics were well-balanced between treatment arms. Median age at diagnosis was 62.0 years (range 24.0 - 89.0). Overall, recruited patients presented with low-risk BC marked by 85.6% clinically stage T1, 98.5% hormone-receptor positivity, 2.4% HER2-positivity, and 3.7% G3 tumors. The majority (73.5%) had an invasive carcinoma of no special type (72.8% in SLNB vs 76.0% in no SLNB arm) and 87.0% had Ki-67 ≤ 20%. Questionnaire completion response remained high throughout the trial: n=3,915 (75.7%) returned questionnaires at 1 month after final axillary surgery, n=3,938 (76.1%) at 3 months, n=4,024 (77.8%) at 6 months, n=3,907 (75.5%) at 12 months, and n=3,637 (70.3%) at 18 months. All QoL baseline parameters regarding GHS, functional scales, and symptom scales/items were well-balanced between arms (total 4,117 SLNB vs 1,056 no SLNB as treated; 270 of 4,117 received cALND). There were significant differences for the BRBS (breast symptoms) and BRAS (arm symptoms) scores favoring the no SLNB group in all post-baseline assessments Patients in the SLNB group showed persistent higher scores for BRAS (differences in mean values ≥5.0 points at all times of assessment) including pain, arm swelling, and impaired mobility in all postoperative visits with the highest difference at 1 month after final surgery (mean scores, 23.6 vs. 12.8, p<0.001). Differences between treatment arms regarding BRBS including pain, breast swelling, hypersensitivity, and other skin problems showed a smaller range, but still a continuous trend for improved QoL in the no SLNB arm. Scoring of the QLQ-C30 questionnaire revealed no relevant differences between the treatment groups postoperatively. Conclusions: This is one of the first randomized trials investigating the omission of SLNB in clinically node-negative patients and the first to report QoL data. Patients with no SLNB benefitted regarding arm symptoms/functioning while no relevant differences in other QoL scales were seen. Data for the primary outcome of the study (iDFS) are expected for the end of 2024.
Citation Format: Bernd Gerber, Angrit Stachs, Kristina Veselinovic, Silke Polata, Thomas Müller, Thorsten Kühn, Jörg Heil, Beyhan Ataseven, Roland Reitsamer, Guido Hildebrandt, Michael Knauer, Michael Golatta, Andrea Stefek, Dirk-Michael Zahm, Marc Thill, Valentina Nekljudova, David Krug, Fenja Seither, Sibylle Loibl, Toralf Reimer. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for the intergroup sentinel mamma study (INSEMA, GBG75, ABCSG43): Persistent impact of axillary surgery on arm and breast symptoms in early breast cancer abstract. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr GS4-03.
Purpose
Indications for nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) have broadened to include the risk reducing setting and locally advanced tumors, which resulted in a dramatic increase in the use of NSM. The ...Oncoplastic Breast Consortium consensus conference on NSM and immediate reconstruction was held to address a variety of questions in clinical practice and research based on published evidence and expert panel opinion.
Methods
The panel consisted of 44 breast surgeons from 14 countries across four continents with a background in gynecology, general or reconstructive surgery and a practice dedicated to breast cancer, as well as a patient advocate. Panelists presented evidence summaries relating to each topic for debate during the in-person consensus conference. The iterative process in question development, voting, and wording of the recommendations followed the modified Delphi methodology.
Results
Consensus recommendations were reached in 35, majority recommendations in 24, and no recommendations in the remaining 12 questions. The panel acknowledged the need for standardization of various aspects of NSM and immediate reconstruction. It endorsed several oncological contraindications to the preservation of the skin and nipple. Furthermore, it recommended inclusion of patients in prospective registries and routine assessment of patient-reported outcomes. Considerable heterogeneity in breast reconstruction practice became obvious during the conference.
Conclusions
In case of conflicting or missing evidence to guide treatment, the consensus conference revealed substantial disagreement in expert panel opinion, which, among others, supports the need for a randomized trial to evaluate the safest and most efficacious reconstruction techniques.
Abstract Purpose Linac-based intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons (IOERT) was implemented to prevent local recurrences after breast conserving therapy (BCT) and was delivered as an ...intraoperative boost to the tumor bed prior to whole breast radiotherapy (WBI). A collaborative analysis has been performed by European ISIORT member institutions for long term evaluation of this strategy. Material and methods Until 10/2005, 1109 unselected patients of any risk group have been identified among seven centers using identical methods, sequencing and dosage for intra- and postoperative radiotherapy. A median IOERT dose of 10 Gy was applied (90% reference isodose), preceding WBI with 50–54 Gy (single doses 1.7–2 Gy). Results At a median follow up of 72.4 months (0.8–239), only 16 in-breast recurrences were observed, yielding a local tumor control rate of 99.2%. Relapses occurred 12.5–151 months after primary treatment. In multivariate analysis only grade 3 reached significance ( p = 0.031) to be predictive for local recurrence development. Taking into account patient age, annual in-breast recurrence rates amounted 0.64%, 0.34%, 0.21% and 0.16% in patients <40 years; 40–49 years; 50–59 years and ⩾60 years, respectively. Conclusion In all risk subgroups, a 10 Gy IOERT boost prior to WBI provided outstanding local control rates, comparing favourably to all trials with similar length of follow up.
Abstract
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01343459
Brief background discussion:
The commonly accepted standard fractionation schedule for whole breast irradiation (WBI) consists of 25fractionations ...with single fractional doses of 2 Gy, resulting in cumulative doses of 50 Gy to the whole breast. Hypofractionation trials from UK and Canada demonstrated a similar outcome in local control and cosmesis compared to conventional fractionation. The combination of IOERT boost and hypofractionation was not yet evaluated.
Trial design:
Prospective one-armed multi-center trial - ISIORT 01
Eligible patients are treated with hypofractionated whole breast irradiation (WBI) of 40.5 Gy in 2.7 Gy per fraction for 15 days, preceded by an intraoperative electron boost (IOERT) to the tumor bed of 10 Gy (90% isodose) during breast conserving surgery.
Eligibility criteria:
Inclusion criteria:
Invasive breast cancer
Age 35 years and older
T1/T2, N1/N2, G1 - G3
Hormone receptor and Her 2 status: no limitations
Exclusion criteria:
Non-invasive breast cancer
Age less than 35 years
T3/T4, N2/N3
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Aim of the study:
To assess the effectiveness of IOERT in combination with hypofractionated WBI in terms of in-breast tumor control and cosmetic outcome, by matching or exceeding the best published results for annual LR rates in 3 different age groups in reference to an upper limit (exceeding = inferiority) and a lower limit (undershooting = superiority) which were estimated on the basis of the existing literature as follows:
Age 35 – 40 years:
Upper limit (best published evidence): 1.2 % (EORTC 22881- Boost trial)
Lower limit (commonly expected dimension): 0.72 % (CONSORT trial)
Age 41 – 50 years:
Upper limit (best published evidence): 1.2 % (EORTC 22881- Boost trial)
Lower limit (commonly expected dimension): 0.72 % (CONSORT trial)
Age over 50 years:
Upper limit (best published evidence): 0.7 % (EORTC 22881- Boost trial)
Lower limit (commonly expected dimension): 0.4 % (START B trial)
Primary endpoint:
Proof of superiority or iso-effectiveness.
Secondary endpoints:
Acute toxicity (CTC- toxicity scoring system) and late toxicity (LENT SOMA scoring system), cosmetic results (Van Limbergen - Score), DFS, OS.
Statistical methods:
Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT):
As a consequence of best published analyses for this patient selection, stopping rules for annual local recurrence rates are defined as follows:
Age group 35-40: H0: p1 <= 0.72% vs H1: p1 > 0.72% with p2 = 4.0%
Age group 41-50: H0: p1 <= 0.72% vs H1: p1 > 0.72% with p2 = 2.4%
Age group 51+: H0: p1 <= 0.4% vs H1: p1 > 0.4% with p2 = 1.4%
H0-Hypothesis means no superiority to standard regimen.
H1-Hypothesis means superiority of HIOB against best published evidence.
Present accrual and target accrual:
Start date: January 2011
Estimated enrollment: 1500 patients
542 patients recruited by March 2014
10 international institutions recruiting.
Citation Format: Roland Reitsamer, Gerd Fastner, Michael Kopp, Felix Sedlmayer. HIOB trial - Hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation preceded by intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons as anticipated boost abstract. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr OT1-4-01.
To evaluate retrospectively rates of local (LCR) and locoregional tumor control (LRCR) in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) who were treated with preoperative chemotherapy (primary ...systemic treatment, PST) followed by breast‐conserving surgery (BCS) and either intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons (IOERT) preceding whole‐breast irradiation (WBI) (Group 1) or with WBI followed by an external tumor bed boost (electrons or photons) instead of IOERT (Group 2). From 2002 to 2007, 83 patients with clinical Stage II or III breast cancer were enrolled in Group 1 and 26 in Group 2. All patients received PST followed by BCS and axillary lymph node dissection. IOERT boosts were applied by single doses of 9 Gy (90% reference isodose) versus external boosts of 12 Gy (median dose range, 6–16) in 2 Gy/fraction (ICRU). WBI in both groups was performed up to total doses of 51–57 Gy (1.7–1.8 Gy/fraction). The respective median follow‐up times for Groups 1 and 2 amount 59 months (range, 3–115) and 67.5 months (range, 13–120). Corresponding 6‐year rates for LCR, LRCR, metastasis‐free survival, disease‐specific survival and overall survival were 98.5, 97.2, 84.7, 89.2 and 86.4% for Group 1 and 88.1, 88.1, 74, 92 and 92% for Group 2, respectively, without any statistical significances. IOERT as boost modality during BCS in LABC after PST shows a trend to be superior in terms of LCR and LRCR in comparison with conventional boosts.
What's new?
Intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons (IOERT) preceding whole breast irradiation provides favorable long‐term local control rate if adopted in limited‐stage breast cancer patients during breast conserving surgery. Here, the authors examined the value of IOERT in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) patients after primary systemic treatment compared to the standard procedure. A retrospective analysis was performed for local control rate, locoregional control rate, metastasis‐free survival, disease‐specific survival, and overall survival in both groups. The 6‐year local control rate of 98.5% was by trend superior to standard treatment, and also confirms IOERT as a highly effective boost strategy in patients with LABC.
Abstract Background: De-escalation of axillary surgery in patients with lymph node-positive breast cancer is currently being tested in ongoing trials for patients with downstaged nodes after ...neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). A proportion of such patients will achieve an excellent axillary node response to NAC, i.e. conversion to pathologic node-negative status after chemotherapy. Genomic prediction of tumor chemosensitivity before final surgery may identify which patients could safely undergo conservative surgical management of their regional lymph nodes. Methods: The AGO-35 (NCT0203274) is a prospective trial for patients with HER2 negative breast cancer scheduled for neoadjuvant chemotherapy that includes an anthracycline- based regimen followed by 3-4 cycles of taxanes. The LN predictor is a newly developed model for predicting the probability of pathological lymph node-positivity after NAC in triple-negative (TNBC) or hormone-receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer. To calculate the LN predictor, which is developed in microarray, we calibrated the normalized individual gene module and SET ER/PR from RNAseq to the Affymetrix U133A platform using independently combined total of 220 pairs of TNBC samples with both RNAseq and U133A microarray results. The logistic regression model is applied for the prediction of the binary outcome, pathological lymph node-positive or negative after NAC. The cut-points of LN predictor in TNBC and HR+ samples were pre-determined for each subtype of breast cancer and then, independent, blinded evaluation in the AGO-35 trial samples. Results: A total of 251 patients with HER2 negative breast treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included. The LN predictor was validated on 189 qualified samples with wtRNA sequence. Statistical analysis of 181 samples is shown in Table 1. Conclusion: Preliminary results of the AGO-35 trial show that the newly developed molecular LN predictor may accurately predict chemosensitivity response to NAC, in high proportion of patients with TNBC. Supported by: Wissenschaftsfonds (FWF) KLI 406 EUBREAST study group AGO Österreich Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF-0158) Table 1. Genomic prediction of chemosensitivity Citation Format: Florentia Peintinger, Thorsten Kühn, Hans-Christian Kolberg, Roland Reitsamer, Sabine Schmatloch, Elisa Sieghartsleitner, Lili Du, Andrea Berghold, W. Fraser Symmans. Development and Validation of a Genomic Test to Predict Tumor Response of the Axillary Nodes after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy (NAC) in Patients with HER2-negative Breast Cancer: Results of the AGO-35 trial abstract. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO5-22-12.
Summary
Background
Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) represents the second most common type of invasive breast cancer (BC). Although ILC generally have good prognostic properties (positive estrogen ...receptor, ER, low tumor grade), they are generally diagnosed at a more advanced stage. The data on the axillary lymph node status in ILC compared to invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) are considered controversial. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the pathological node stage (pN) between ILC and IDC in an Austria-wide register.
Methods
Data of the Clinical Tumor Register (Klinisches TumorRegister, KTR) of the Austrian Association for Gynecological Oncology (AGO) were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with primary early BC, invasive lobular or ductal, diagnosed between January 2014 and December 2018, and primary surgery were included. A total of 2127 tumors were evaluated and compared in 2 groups, ILC
n
= 303, IDC
n
= 1824.
Results
A total of 2095 patients were analyzed in the study. In the multivariate analysis, pN2 and pN3 were observed significantly more frequently in ILC compared with IDC (odds ratio, OR 1.93; 95% confidence interval, CI 1.19–3.14;
p
= 0.008 and OR 3.22; 95% CI: 1.47–7.03;
p
= 0.003; respectively). Other factors associated with ILC were tumor grades 2 and 3, positive ER, and pathological tumor stage (pT) 2 and pT3. In contrast, concomitant ductal carcinoma in situ, overexpression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and a moderate and high proliferation rate (Ki67) were found less frequently in ILC.
Conclusion
The data show an increased risk of extensive axillary lymph node metastasis (pN2/3) in ILC.
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