Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy for the Treatment of Breast Cancer: Experience of National Institute of Oncology, Rabat, Morocco

Hypofractionated radiation therapy has proven effective on locoregional control and tolerance in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. The aim of this study is to compare the results of hypofractionated radiation therapy versus conventional radiation therapy in terms of local control and tolerance. It was a retrospective study of patients observations collected from January 2007 to December 2008 in Department of Radiation Therapy in Institut National d’Oncologie de Rabat. The treatment results were evaluated by the rate of locoregional recurrence, distant recurrence and research of late toxicities. Radiotherapy was delivered using the same technique in both groups, by gamma photons of cobalt 60 with an energy of 1.25 MeV. They were 2 groups: the first group treated with standard dose rate and the second group treated by hypofractionated radiation therapy. The mean age of the patients was 42.8 ± 6.9 years old in the standard group and 43.22 ± 7.2 years old in the hypofractionation group. We noted a predominance of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. The majority of patients were pT2, pN0 and pN1. The majority of patients had radical surgery and chemotherapy with anthracyclines in both groups. We noted a statistically significant difference in the irradiation of chest wall between the standard (89.2%) and hypofractionated group (70.3%), with p = 0.043. The median duration of radiation therapy was statistically different in both groups: 39 days in the standard and 23 days in the hypofractionated group (p 0.001). The local recurrences were statistically identical to 12 and 24 months (p = 0.999). Concerning toxicities, the frequency of adverse event was similar in both groups. Hypofractionated radiation therapy with a total dose of 42 Gy at 2.8 Gy per fraction in 5 fractions weekly is comparable to standard radiotherapy in terms of local control and tolerance and is therefore a very good alternative to standard treatment.

Epidemiological and Clinical Profile of Breast Cancer at Bamako Radiotherapy Center

Breast cancer is a major public health problem because of its incidence and mortality. Purpose: To establish the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of breast cancer seen at the radiotherapy center at the Mali Hospital of Bamako. Patients and methods: It was a retrospective, descriptive study of data from patients seen for breast cancer at the Center of Radiotherapy of Mali Hospital between April 2014 and December 2016. The parameters studied were: age, sex, family history of breast cancer, menopausal status, parity, breast tumor location, histological type, histological grade, cancer classification stage. Results: 134 cases of breast cancer were collected, with a frequency of 15%. The sex ratio (H/F) of 0.007. The patient’s mean age was 47 ± 11 years old. The most represented age groups were 33 - 47 years old with 45.5% and 48 - 62 years old with 39%. Three percent (3%) of patients had a family history of breast cancer. Fifty (50%) of the patients were menopausal. The main clinical signs found were : mammary nodules (98%), mastodynia (65%), nodes (67%). Invasive ductal carcinomas were found in 94% of patients, followed by infiltrating lobular carcinomas with 3.7% and metaplastic carcinomas with 1.7%. SBR Grades II and III were mostly found with 37% and 23%. The average tumor size was 87 mm ± 43. Stage III was predominantly represented with 72%, followed by Stage II with 24% and Stages I and IV with 2% each. Conclusion: Breast cancer is common and reaches both before and after 50 years;the diagnosis is usually late;hence it is the importance of raising awareness and screening before the age of 50 and popularizing some complementary tests to better understand the prognosis of this disease and promote more targeted and conservative treatments that will improve survival.

Epidemiological and Clinical Profile of Cervix Cancer at Bamako Radiotherapy Center

Cervical cancer remains a major public health problem in Africa, particularly in Mali. The goal of this work was to investigate the epidemiological and clinical aspects of cervix cancer seen at the radiation therapy center. This was a descriptive study on the retrospective collection of data on patients found in the Radiation Therapy Centre of Bamako, for invasive cervical cancer be-tween April 2014 and April 2017. The average age of our population was 52 ± 12.5 years with extremes ranges from 18 to 95 years. The most represented age group was [50 - 65 years] with 44.2%. The predominant histological type was squamous carcinoma (CE) with 94.2%. Bleeding were found in almost all patients, most often associated with foul smelling hydrorrhea;80.3% of our patients were stage III and 12.9% of stage IV according to the IFGO classifi-cation. Cervix cancer remains a major public health problem in Mali. The di-agnosis is often late, therefore, resulting in late care and unfavorable progno-sis. Sensitization, vulgarization of vaccination and systematization of screen-ing could be helpful in the fight against this cancer.