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Introduction: Acceleration of radiotherapy in 5 fractions for breast cancer can reduce the burden of treatment. We report on acute toxicity after whole-breast irradiation with a simultaneous integrated boost in 5 fractions over 10e12 days. Material and methods: Acute toxicity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of 200 patients, randomized between a 15-or 5-fractions schedule, were collected, using the CTCAE toxicity scoring system, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, EORTC QLQ-C30 and BR23 and the BREAST-Q questionnaire. The prescribed dose to the breast was either 15*2.67 Gy (40.05 Gy) or 5*5.7 Gy (28.5 Gy). 90% of patients received a SIB to a cumulative dose of 46.8 Gy (15*3.12 Gy) or 31 Gy (5*6.2 Gy). Results: Physician-assessed toxicity was lower for the 5-fractions group. A significant difference was observed for breast pain (p ¼ 0.002), fatigue (p < 0.0001), breast edema (p ¼ 0.001) and dermatitis (p ¼ 0.003). Patients treated in 5 fractions reported better mean HRQoL scores for breast symptoms (p ¼ 0.001) and physical well-being (p ¼ 0.001). A clinically important deterioration in HRQoL of 10 points or more was also less frequently observed in the latter group for physical functioning (p ¼ 0.0005), social functioning (p ¼ 0.0007), fatigue (p ¼ 0.003), breast symptoms (p ¼ 0.0002) and physical wellbeing (p ¼ 0.002). Conclusion:In this single institute study, acute toxicity of accelerated breast radiotherapy in 5 fractions over 10e12 days seems to compare favourably to hypofractionated breast radiotherapy in 15 fractions. Less breast edema, dermatitis, desquamation, breast pain and fatigue are seen. Social and physical functioning are also less disturbed and patients have a better future perspective.

REQUITE consortium, Development and optimisation of a machine-learning prediction model for acute desquamation following breast radiotherapy in the multi-centre REQUITE cohort, Advances in Radiation Oncology (2022), doi:

Prone positioning for whole-breast irradiation (WBI) reduces dose to organs at risk, but reduces set-up speed, precision, and comfort. We aimed to improve these problems by placing patients in prone crawl position on a newly developed crawl couch (CrC). A group of 10 right-sided breast cancer patients requiring WBI were randomized in this cross-over trial, comparing the CrC to a standard prone breastboard (BB). Laterolateral (LL), craniocaudal (CC) and anterioposterior (AP) set-up errors were evaluated with cone beam CT. Comfort, preference and set-up time (SUT) were assessed. Forty left and right-sided breast cancer patients served as a validation group. For BB versus CrC, AP, LL and CC mean patient shifts were − 0.8 ± 2.8, 0.2 ± 11.7 and − 0.6 ± 4.4 versus − 0.2 ± 3.3, − 0.8 ± 2.5 and − 1.9 ± 5.7 mm. LL shift spread was reduced significantly. Nine out of 10 patients preferred the CrC. SUT did not differ significantly. The validation group had mean patient shifts of 1.7 ± 2.9 (AP), 0.2 ± 3.6 (LL) and − 0.2 ± 3.3 (CC) mm. Mean SUT in the validation group was 1 min longer (P < 0.05) than the comparative group. Median SUT was 3 min in all groups. The CrC improved precision and comfort compared to BB. Set-up errors compare favourably to other prone-WBI trials and rival supine positioning.

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