Accelerated Hypofractionated Radiotherapy (AHF-RT) for the Treatment of Breast Cancer

The traditional radiation treatment schedule for patients who have had a lumpectomy for early stage breast cancer is 15 to 30 treatments delivered once a day for 3 to 6 weeks. This treatment schedule can be inconvenient and costly for elderly, rural, uninsured, and minority patients. This study will evaluate a new radiation treatment schedule called whole-breast accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy (AHF-RT). AHF-RT delivers higher doses of radiation in fewer treatments than traditional radiation therapy. The AHF-RT treatment course is completed with 5 radiation treatments delivered once a week for 5 weeks. The purpose of this study is to determine if accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy (AHF-RT) is a safe, effective, more convenient, and less costly alternative to traditional radiation that will offer the same chance of cure with no additional side effects.