BACKGROUND Reductions in the dose intensity (DI) of adjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy in early stage breast cancer are frequently required due to treatment toxicity or poor tolerance, but the implications of a minimal reduction in DI on clinical outcome remain uncertain. PATIENTS AND METHODS Women with stage I-II breast cancer treated with adjuvant adriamycin and cyclophosphamide (AC)...

During breast radiotherapy treatment, the contralateral breast receives radiation doses to the skin and subcutaneous tissue caused mainly from incident electron contamination and low energy photon scatter radiation. Measurements have shown that for a typical hybrid tangential treatment, these dose levels can be up to 17% of maximum applied prescription dose if no shielding is used during the tr...

PURPOSE To evaluate the feasibility of using helical tomotherapy for locally advanced left-sided breast cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS Treatment plans were generated for 10 left-sided breast cancer patients with positive lymph nodes comparing a multiport breast (three-dimensional) technique with the tomotherapy treatment planning system. The planning target volumes, including the chest wall/br...

The nationwide breast cancer screening programme using mammography has been in full operation in the Netherlands since 1997. Quality control of the screening programme has been assigned to the National Expert and Training Centre for Breast Cancer Screening. Limits are set to the mean glandular dose and the centre monitors these for all facilities engaged in the screening programme. This procedu...

Previous meta-analysis indicated conflicting results in case-control versus cohort studies on the association of green tea with breast cancer risk, and conflicting results were also found in case-control versus cohort studies in another meta-analysis on the association of black tea with breast cancer risk. Many studies were published after the previous meta-analysis. Besides, the dose-response ...

BACKGROUND Prophylactic antibiotics (PAs) are beneficial to breast cancer patients undergoing surgery because they prevent surgical site infection (SSI), but limited information regarding their use has been published. This study aims to determine the use of PAs prior to breast cancer surgery amongst breast surgeons in Colombia. METHODS An online survey was distributed amongst the breast surge...

As most local recurrence after breast-conserving treatment occurs within 2 cm around the lumpectomy cavity, wide-volume partial breast rather than whole breast irradiation has been actively investigated with a view to decreasing radiation toxicities. Replacing external beam radiotherapy by wide-volume interstitial brachytherapy offers the advantages of more accurate treatment volume coverage an...

Breast cancer has become the leading indication for high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) with autologous stem cell rescue (ASCR) in North America. The rapid increase in HDC/ASCR for breast cancer has been driven by belief in the response rates and survival times demonstrated in phase II studies, which have been higher than that of historical controls. However, there is a growing body of data to suggest...

Despite nearly 20 years of study, the importance of chemotherapy dose intensity in breast cancer remains unclear. Substantial preclinical data suggest a dose-response relationship, and consistent data document that recipients of substandard dosing have inferior outcomes. The use of increased dose-intensive therapies is costly, may require the use of hematopoietic growth factor support, and can ...