Clinical experience with breast-conserving therapy

From October 1989 to December 1993, 103 breasts in patients were treated with radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery at Aichi Cancer Center Hospital. There were 93 stage I and 10 stage II tumors by the classification of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society. As surgical treatment, quadrantectomy, segmentectomy, or lumpectomy with axillary dissection (level II) was performed. Radiotherapy was delivered with two opposing tangential fields of 46-50 Gy using 6-MV photons. For patients with a positive margin, boost electron irradiation to 10 Gy was employed. In median follow-up of 27 months (range 10-60 months), two patients developed recurrence in the treated breast and four patients had distant metastases (1 brain, 2 lung, and 1 bone). As for complications, symptomatic radiation pneumonitis occurred in one case. (author)