Advances in regional nodal management of early-stage breast cancer

With the continuous improvement of systemic treatment, reasonable local regional control of early-stage breast cancer can be translated into survival benefits. The optimization of regional nodal management in patients with limited sentinel lymph node(SLN) metastasis needs to be weighed by surgical complications, regional recurrence risk, and lymph node status, as well as other escalating treatment(systemic/radiotherapy) that may result from deescalating surgery. With the effective support and supplementation of systemic therapy and radiotherapy, the management of axillary surgery is developing in a de-escalating trend. The widespread application of neoadjuvant therapy has contributed to optimizing the management of patients with clinically node-negative/imaging nodepositive disease. In clinical practice, it is necessary to consider the residual tumor burden of regional lymph nodes when formulating the optimal irradiation fields in patients with limited positive SLN without axillary lymph node dissection. The combined application of genomic tests and American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z0011/AMAROS criteria could provide patients with a better strategy of dual de-escalation treatment, which includes the de-escalation of both axillary surgery and systemic treatment. In the era of sentinel lymph node biopsy(SLNB), the regional nodal management of breast cancer should adhere to the concept of “updating ideas, making bold assumptions, and carefully seeking proof”, make full use of the benefits of systemic therapy and radiotherapy to reduce the scope of surgery and complications, and expand the “net benefit” of efficacy and quality of life. This review discusses the optimization of regional nodal management in the era of SLNB, in order to provide reference information for clinicians.

Modified partially wide tangents technique in post-mastectomy radiotherapy for patients with left-sided breast cancer

Background The role of internal mammary nodes （IMN） irradiation for breast cancer patients after mastectomy remains controversial. This study aimed to compare different techniques for radiation of the chest wall （CW） and IMN post-mastectomy for left-breast cancer patients in terms of dose homogeneity within planning target volume （PTV） and dose to critical structures.Methods Thirty patients underwent CT simulation, while CW, IMN, left lung, heart and contralateral breast were contoured. Three three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy （3D-CRT） techniques, namely, standard tangents, partially wide tangents （PWT）, and modified PWT techniques plus intensity modulated radiotherapy （IMRT） technique have been used to radiate CW and IMN. In addition to the target coverage and dose homogeneity, we also evaluated the dose to the critical structures including heart, left lung and contralateral breast.Results All three 3D-CRT techniques provided satisfactory coverage regarding total PTV. The PWT and the modified PWT gave better coverage of IMN PTV with V47.5 of （96.83±4.56）% and （95.19±3.90）% compared to standard tangents （（88.16±7.77）%）, P 〈0.05. The standard tangents also contributed the biggest IMN VD105%, VD110%, VD115% and VD120%. The lowest mean dose of the heart was achieved by the modified PWT （（8.47±2.30） Gy）, compared with PWT （（11.97±3.54）Gy） and standard tangents （（11.18±2.53） Gy）. The mean dose of lung and contralateral breast with the modified PWT was significantly lower than those with PWT. Comparing IMRT with the modified PWT, both techniques provided satisfactory coverage. The conformity indexes （CI） with IMRT （CI1： 0.71±0.02; CI2： 0.64±0.02） were better than those with the modified PWT （CI1： 0.50±0.02; CI2： 0.45±0.02）. The mean dose, V5, V10 and V5-10 of heart and left lung with the modified PWT were significantly lower than those with the IMRT. The mean dose and VD2% of contralateral breast with the modified PWT were not significantly different from the IMRT （P=0.868 and P=0.212）.Conclusions No single technique provides both the best CW and IMN coverage with minimum lung and heart dose.The modified PWT technique can be used as a clinical tool for the treatment of the left-sided post-mastectomy breast cancer patients to provide homogeneous target coverage while maintaining Iow doses to normal tissue.