Lymphedema Evaluation After Adjuvant Hypofractionated Radiotherapy for 1-2 Macrometastatic Sentinel Lymph Nodes

In recent years, breast oncologic surgery has aimed to omit axillary dissection in cases where no more than two sentinel lymph nodes are positive, particularly when complementary radiotherapy to the whole breast is planned. Radiation therapy to the axillary lymph nodes ensures excellent locoregional control in patients with primary tumor no more than 5 centimeter and 1-2 macrometastatic sentinel lymph nodes, and appears to carry fewer side effects than axillary dissection. Arm lymphedema is indeed one of the most well-known long-term complications of breast cancer treatment, impacting the quality of life for patients undergoing lymphadenectomy. In this scenario, the study proposes a treatment of hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to the breast and axillary lymph nodes with the aim of further containing the risk of developing ipsilateral arm lymphedema. IMRT improves the dosimetric profile of surrounding organs at risk in the treated area, with better dose conformity to the target volume compared to tangential fields used in conventional 3D conformal techniques (as employed in most trials described so far).