The Impact of Chemotherapy on Toxic Effects and Cosmetic Outcome in Patients Receiving Whole Breast Irradiation: An Analysis Within a Statewide Quality Consortium

Near-Surface Dose Correlates With Moist Desquamation and Unplanned Reconstructive Surgery in Patients With Implant-Based Reconstruction Receiving Postmastectomy Radiation Therapy

“…Because patient-reported pain was reported either quantitatively on a scale from 1 to 10 or qualitatively using “mild,” “moderate,” or “severe” qualifiers, pain was assessed using a modified brief pain inventory scale and categorized as moderate/severe if any pain severity score was rated 4 or higher. 10 , 11 A pain severity rating of at least 4 out of 10 portends interference in patient function. 10 Therefore, grade 2+ chest wall pain was defined as either a pain severity rating of 4 or higher on a 0 to 10 scale or “moderate” or “severe” descriptor.…”

Locoregional Therapy: From Mastectomy to Reconstruction, Targeted Surgery, and Ultra-Hypofractionated Radiotherapy

“…Many radiation oncologists were hesitant to give up conventional fractionation that had been in use for decades. Several large cohort studies have now closed evidence gaps for subgroups that were not well represented in clinical trials, e.g., patients with triple-negative or HER2-positive tumors, very young patients, patients with large breasts or autoimmune diseases [24][25][26][27]. Recently, two large randomized controlled trials that integrated boost irradiation into moderate hypofractionation over the course of 3 weeks (simultaneous integrated boost of 48 Gy to the tumor bed and 40 Gy to the breast in 15 fractions) were presented at international conferences and demonstrated non-inferiority to sequential boost irradiation [27,28].…”