"Our
study summarizes the currently available randomized evidence
regarding the role of partial breast irradiation (PBI) compared
with whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT) in early breast cancer.
Partial breast irradiation is a promising technique which offers
many advantages as therapeutic option in breast cancer patients.
The take-home message of our study, which was a meta-analysis of
3 trials, is that PBI may be a safe and feasible technique for
women with early breast cancer because it does not seem to
jeopardize patient survival or distant metastasis. On the other
hand, we found an increased risk for local and regional
recurrences in PBI arm, a result which needs to be further
addressed. Despite the number of limitations in our study,
including limited randomized evidence, insufficiently powered
studies, and a variety of breast irradiation techniques used,
the results of our study enable us to conclude that partial
breast irradiation is a safe alternative radiation technique in
breast cancer patients but, awaiting further randomized evidence
from ongoing large randomized controlled trials, whole breast
radiotherapy remains gold standard technique" (Comment
on: Valachis
A et al.: "Partial Breast Irradiation or Whole Breast
Radiotherapy for Early Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of
Randomized Controlled Trials", Breast
J. 2010:16(3):246-51)
Herodotus (484–425 BC), historian of
the wars between Persia and Greece, writes that Democedes, a
Persian physician living in Greece, cured the wife of Persian
King Darius of an ulcerated breast cancer
