Purpose: This multi-institutional study intended to investigate the effect of tumor bed boost in patients who achieved pathologic complete response (ypCR) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and breast-conserving therapy (BCT).
Materials and methods: We identified 180 patients who initially had lymph node (LN) metastasis and achieved ypCR (ypT0/isN0) following NAC and BCT from the 13 institutions of the Korean Radiation Oncology Group (KROG) 16-16 and KROG 12-05. The effect of tumor bed boost on loco-regional control (LRC), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) rates was analyzed.
Results: In all patients, five-year LRC, DFS and OS rates were 97.5%, 95.4%, and 99.4%, respectively. Tumor bed boost was performed in 158 (87.8%) patients. Advanced N-stage (cN2-3, p = 0.036), close resection margin (p < 0.001), and sentinel lymph node biopsy (p = 0.040) were unfavorable factors for DFS. Tumor bed boost was not a significant factor for LRC, DFS, and OS.
Conclusions: This study suggests the benefit of tumor bed boost might be minimal in ypCR patients following NAC and BCT. Larger prospective studies are needed to address this issue.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Radiotherapy; Tumor bed boost.
Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.