Intraoperative electron radiotherapy in early invasive ductal breast cancer

Intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT) can be used to treat early breast cancer during conservative surgery, enabling shorter overall treatment times and reduced irradiation of organs at risk. A registry study at Jules Bordet Institute (Brussels, Belgium) found that among the first 996 patients undergoing partial IOERT of the breast, the rate of breast cancer local recurrence after IOERT was low (2.7% after 5 years) and comparable to published results for IORT and APBI. IOERT was highly operator-dependent. The authors conclude that when used in a selected patient population, IOERT achieves a good balance between tumor control and late radiotherapy-mediated toxicity.