Dose and f ractionation regimens for breast cancer

摘要

Some aspects about a recent Article by Owen and colleagues1 merit attention. Although hypofractionation was used for breast radiotherapy in two of the three trial groups, boost doses were given by use of conventional fractionation (14 Gy in seven fractions of 2 Gy). This use of fractionation seems go against the hypothesis proposed in the Article, which postulates that use of higher radiotherapy doses per fraction is better than or at least equal to conventional fractionation. In breast-cancer radiotherapy, the field size of a boost dose is usually reduced, and therefore hypofractionated regimens are used even after standard fractionated radiotherapy of the whole breast.2 Furthermore, why a quarter of patients were not given boost in the trial by Owen and co-workers is unclear.