Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation
Absztrakt
The data from clinical trials investigating Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) have shown that with the proper patient selection, strict adherence to established guidelines and implementation of quality assurance procedures the efficacy outcomes using APBI are similar to those obtained using the conventional Whole Breast Irradiation (WBI) after breast-conserving surgery. The shorter treatment time with APBI could mean good implications for older patients, working women and patients who live far away from radiation therapy facilities and on the long run may prove to be a more cost-effective method of breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery. Consequently, this is an indication that the desired rationale behind the implementation of a new method for radiotherapy has been achieved. The emergence of a new method of doing things did not render the previous method obsolete; it just offered patients the chance to have another option.