Another piece in the jigsaw of accelerated partial breast irradiation

Whole-breast radiotherapy is the standard of care following breast conservation surgery, but an increasing number of trials are reporting the use of partial breast irradiation for selected patients. In The Lancet Oncology, Csaba Polgár and colleagues1 present the results of the Groupe Européen de Curiethérapie European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (GEC-ESTRO) trial of accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI), whereby patients were randomly assigned to whole-breast irradiation in 2 Gy fractions for 6 weeks up to a total dose of 50 Gy, or APBI using brachytherapy, typically given in seven or eight fractions over 4–5 days