Long-term side effects and cosmetic outcome in a pool of breast cancer patients treated with intraoperative radiotherapy with electrons as sole treatment.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate late toxicity and cosmetic outcome after intraoperative radiotherapy using electrons (ELIOT) as sole treatment modality in early breast cancer patients.

METHODS

A total of 119 patients selected randomly among 1200 cases was analyzed. Late toxicities were documented using the LENT-SOMA scoring system, cosmesis was evaluated with the Harvard scale, and a numeric rating scale was used to assess symptoms.

RESULTS

After a median follow-up of 71 months, grade II fibrosis was observed in 38 patients (31.9%) and grade III fibrosis in 7 patients (5.9%). Postoperative complications (12.6%) did not correlate with late toxicity. Physicians and patients scored cosmesis as excellent or good in 84% and 77.3% of the cases, respectively. Patient satisfaction was higher than 90%.

CONCLUSIONS

In the study, ELIOT gives low and acceptable long-term toxicity. A longer follow-up and a larger number of patients are needed to confirm these promising results.