Lung Dose-Volume Parameters and the Risk of Pneumonitis for Patients Treated with Accelerated Partial-Breast Irradiation (APBI) using 3D Conformal Radiotherapy (3D-CRT)

Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation Consensus Statement From the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)

“…For brachytherapy approaches, there may also be an increased risk of breast cellulitis or abscess, with the risk of infection ranging from 2% to 16% in reported studies (59,69). For external-beam-based approaches, there is preliminary concern that a minority of patients treated with APBI may be susceptible to severe soft-tissue fibrosis or pulmonary toxicity (85)(86)(87). However, preliminary data from the RTOG 0413/ NSABP B-39 randomized clinical trial including 3,311 patients with a mean follow-up of 19 months have not demonstrated an increased risk of severe toxicity in patients treated with external-beam-based approaches (88).…”

Toxicity of Three-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy for Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation

“…Very little information has been presented thus far regarding the toxicity associated with APBI delivered by 3D-CRT, and, until very recently, no data have been presented to correlate the specific dosimetric variables after 3D-CRT with the outcome (18)(19)(20). This stands in stark contrast to brachytherapy for which a number of clinical and treatment-related variables have been identified that correlate with adverse outcomes (8,12,15).…”