Caloric Restriction in Treating Patients With Stage 0-I Breast Cancer Undergoing Surgery and Radiation Therapy

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: 1. Investigate the feasibility of a clinical trial administering ionizing radiation with concurrent caloric restriction (CR) for the treatment of breast cancer. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: 2. Investigate measurable changes of patient characteristics and tissue and serum from CR conditions to determine a metric for evaluating this treatment in future studies. OUTLINE: Beginning 2-4 weeks after completion of lumpectomy, patients receive food diaries to complete for 7-10 days. Dietary counselors then give patients guidelines for dietary modifications to reduce caloric intake by 25% of their normal diet. Patients follow caloric restricted diet for 10 weeks (2 weeks prior to radiation therapy, during 6 weeks of radiation therapy, and at least 2 weeks after radiation therapy). Patients undergo radiation therapy once daily (QD) 5 days a week for 6 weeks.