Whole-breast hypofractionated radiotherapy

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy diagnosed in women (http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html ). Today, with the widespread generalization of mammography, it is most frequently diagnosed at an early stage (Nystrom et al. 2002). The outcomes of those early-stage cancers are excellent, with local control above 98% and a risk of dying of cancer at 5 years below 2% (http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html; Strnad et al. 2016). Clinical researches since the 1980s have aimed at optimizing the cosmetic outcome, minimizing the long-term side effects, and reducing the treatment burden. Several randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses have shown that breast-conserving surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy (XRT) to the whole breast achieves local control rate and survival equivalent to mastectomy, with the advantage of allowing breast conservation and hence improved quality of life (Fisher et al. 2002; Veronesi et al. 2002; Clark et al. 1996; EBCTCG et al. 2011).

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