Brachytherapy boost in women with early-stage breast cancer treated with breast conserving therapy

SummaryIn women with early stage breast cancer brachytherapy (BR) boost allows increase of the dose administered to the tumour bed, following whole-breast irradiation. In the present paper high-dose-rate and low-dose-rate brachytherapy results are presented, in comparison to external electron beam radiotherapy. Results of Phase II and III trials show that both techniques give comparable results regarding efficacy. In most patients satisfying cosmetic results can also be obtained, with acceptable local recurrence rate not exceeding 10%.