Year: 2008
Type: letter
Abstract: We read with great interest the recent article by Jean-Philippe Pignol et al 1 and the comment by Vordermark 2 regarding a multicenter, double-blind, randomized clinical trial testing whether breast intensity-modulated radiation therapy (BIMRT) reduces the rate of acute skin reaction (notably moist desquamation), decreases pain, and finally improves the quality of life as compared with standard radiotherapy using wedges.We would like to note that with regard to recent studies from other institutes, observations of grade 3 and 4 skin toxicity rates of 36.7% (standard radiotherapy) and 27.1% (BIMRT) are a poor result.Notably, Osako et al 3 showed that in 377 patients treated with conventional radiotherapy, only 77 (20%) and six (2%) had grade 2 or grade 3 radiation dermatitis, respectively.Even better results were achieved with hypofractionated radiotherapy.This is in accordance with observations in our institution.Furthermore, in our opinion, a long-term follow-up of 10 years would be necessary to support a general recommendation of BIMRT for breast cancer.Only with long-term follow-up can local control, overall survival, and cosmetic results be reliably evaluated.Taken together, at this
Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology
Institution: Duke Medical Center
Language: English
Subfield: Cancer Research
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4238861827