20 Sep Breast Cancer: Three vs Five Week Post-Operative Radiotherapy

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof John R Yarnold
Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Prof. Yarnold: A 3-week schedule of curative post-operative radiotherapy for women with breast cancer involving 15 treatments (fractions) delivered Monday to Friday each week, is at least as safe and effective as historical schedules given over 5 or 6 weeks. In fact the 3-week schedule is gentler on the healthy tissues than earlier standard regimens.

MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected?

Prof. Yarnold: The results were not unexpected, but confirm that the relationships between test and control schedules do not alter between 5 & 10yr. The larger number of events also make the conclusions more robust, statistically speaking.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Prof. Yarnold: We are testing 2 dose levels of a 1-week schedule against the 3-week schedule in a phase 3 trial in UK (FAST Forward Trial), and have entered about 2500 of the accrual target of 4000 patients.

Citation:

The UK Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy (START) Trial A of radiotherapy hypofractionation for treatment of early breast cancer: a randomised trial.

START Trialists’ Group, Bentzen SM, Agrawal RK, Aird EG, Barrett JM, Barrett-Lee PJ, Bliss JM, Brown J, Dewar JA, Dobbs HJ, Haviland JS, Hoskin PJ, Hopwood P, Lawton PA, Magee BJ, Mills J, Morgan DA, Owen JR, Simmons S, Sumo G, Sydenham MA, Venables K, Yarnold JR.

Lancet Oncol. 2008 Apr;9(4):331-41. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(08)70077-9.
Epub 2008 Mar 19.

Last Updated on September 20, 2013 by Marie Benz MD FAAD