Purpose: To develop clinical guidelines for the quality practice of accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) as part of breast-conserving therapy for women with early-stage breast cancer.
Methods and materials: Members of the American Brachytherapy Society with expertise in breast cancer and breast brachytherapy in particular devised updated guidelines for appropriate patient evaluation and selection based on an extensive literature search and clinical experience.
Results: Increasing numbers of randomized and single and multi-institution series have been published documenting the efficacy of various APBI modalities. With more than 10-year followup, multiple series have documented excellent clinical outcomes with interstitial APBI. Patient selection for APBI should be based on a review of clinical and pathologic factors by the clinician with particular attention paid to age (≥50 years old), tumor size (≤3cm), histology (all invasive subtypes and ductal carcinoma in situ), surgical margins (negative), lymphovascular space invasion (not present), and nodal status (negative). Consistent dosimetric guidelines should be used to improve target coverage and limit potential for toxicity following treatment.
Conclusions: These guidelines have been created to provide clinicians with appropriate patient selection criteria to allow clinicians to use APBI in a manner that will optimize clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. These guidelines will continue to be evaluated and revised as future publications further stratify optimal patient selection.
Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.