Women with early breast cancer are treated with breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by whole breast irradiation (WBI) and a complementary dose to the lumpectomy cavity (boost). A delay of 3-4 weeks after surgery is advisable for allowing wound healing before the start of radiotherapy. Historically, WBI plus boost are delivered in 6-7 weeks. This treatment is associated with fatigue and a decreased quality of life. Randomized trials have shown that shorter hypofractionated schedules, delivering radiotherapy in 3 weeks, are equal to the long schedules. The investigators have shown that a hypofractionated tomotherapy with a simultaneous integrated boost is oncologically safe, well tolerated and has less impact on quality of life than the conventional schemes.
In the postoperative setting, it is often debatable which volume should be included in the boost. Surgical clips can help to decrease inter-observer variability, but often boost-volumes remain large because of uncertainties in delineation. Preoperative radiotherapy has the advantage that the gross tumor volume (GTV) is visible on imaging. This can result in smaller boost volumes.
The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a short preoperative tomotherapy. The potential benefits are
* a decrease in overall treatment time
* a positive effect on quality of life
* a more precise target delineation
* profitable health economics.
