Cancer of the breast. Radiation therapy.

Abstract

There are many questions that have to be answered concerning the role of radiotherapy in the management of primary breast cancer. Hopefully, prospective clinical trials will provide some answers, but more basic research into the biology of breast cancer and the host-tumor relationship will be needed. There are indications that radiotherapy alone, or following minimal extirpative surgery in selected cases, may be as effective for control of breast cancer as conventional mastectomies. The role of radiotherapy following segmental mastectomy, with or without axillary dissection, needs to be clarified. The possibility exists that high LET (linear energy transfer) radiation such as neutron or pi meson beams may provide better local control than conventional radiation. Thus, it may be possible to treat effectively all primary breast cancers with such radiations and obviate the need for any type of mastectomy. It remains to be demonstrated whether adjuvant chemotherapy is as effective as radiotherapy in preventing chest wall and regional node recurrences. If it is not, there may be a place for both adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the treatment of operable cancer of the breast. Likewise, effective chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy may increase the local and regional control achieved with radiotherapy alone and make more primary lesions suitable for treatment without mastectomy. Meyer (1970) recently called attention to the leukopenia and cellualr immune deficiency produced by irradiation to the thorax and mediastinum. Further study is necessary to define exactly how much immunosuppression results from radiotherapy, its clinical significance and what can be done to avoid or counter it. If Stjervsward's thesis (1974) concerning the deleterious effects of radiotherapy on survival is correct, then it is of great importance to identify those patients most likely to be adversely affected by radiotherapy. Conversely, it may be possible in the future to identify a subgroup of patients who would not be adversely affected by radiation and who would be most likely to benefit from it.