Accelerated hypofractionated breast radiotherapy: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and facts

The demand for breast cancer care has increased as cancer treatment innovations have proliferated. Adjuvant radiotherapy to the breast is considered to be part of the standard treatment in breast cancer. The role of radiotherapy in terms of reducing loco-regional recurrence and increased conservative surgery, and also after a mastectomy in selected randomized trials. Patterns of radiotherapy commonly used for breast cancer comprise a weeks, frequently with the addition of an additional 1-1.5 weeks of a radiation boost to the tumour area. In last years, there has been a renewed interest in hypofractionated and accelerated radiotherapy schedules that reduce the overall treatment time to barely three weeks, leading to an improvement in quality of life for patients and also optimizing workload of radiation oncology departments. However, despite the existing evidence supporting the use of hypofractionated treatment regimens, their widespread is still far from complete. Many questions have generated resistance among clinical oncologists for their regular use. The aim of this review is to answer those questions that may arise with the use of moderate hypofractionation in breast cancer. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.