Intraoperative radiotherapy in elderly patients with breast cancer: Is there a clinical applicability? Review of the current evidence

Introduction Screening and adjuvant postoperative therapies have increased survival amongst women with breast cancer, but these tools are seldom applied in elderly patients. Higher rates of local recurrence occur in those elderly patients who avoid radiotherapy. TARGIT-A and ELIOT trials has been reported to not to be inferior to external beam RT in suitable subgroups of patients. The TARGIT-Elderly trial has been launched in order to confirm the efficacy of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) in a well selected group of elderly patients who are more likely to decline radiation treatment. Objectives Current evidence of the medical literature on the clinical reliability and applicability of intraoperative radiotherapy amongst older women diagnosed with early breast cancer is after summarized. Materials and methods Literature databases were searched up to June 2015. Terms used to retrieve articles were ‘breast cancer', ‘elderly', ‘intraoperative radiotherapy', ‘IORT' and ‘IOERT'. Results Elderly patients with pT1N0 tumours are regarded to be suitable for IORT according to ASTRO and GEC-ESTRO recommendations, respectively. Discussion In the light of the medical literature we can assume that patients benefit from postoperative radiation therapy, but we still do not know who can be spared from it. These issues emphasize the urgent need to develop and support clinical trials for this older population of breast cancer patients. Conclusions Whether radiotherapy is beneficial in elderly still remains a matter of debate. IORT along with BCS in a selected subgroup of patients (>70years, pT1N0 tumours) could represent a valid option for a better local control.