Regional Nodal Irradiation for Low-Risk, Node-Positive Breast Cancer.

Purpose/Objective(s) The benefit of regional nodal irradiation (RNI) for node-positive, low-risk breast cancer is controversial. The ongoing TAILOR RT trial is enrolling breast cancer patients with 1-3 involved macroscopic nodes and a low risk Oncotype DX Recurrence Score ( Materials/Methods We interrogated a population-based database, which included all women treated for breast cancer in the province. Inclusion criteria were: age 40-79, pT1-2 pN1 (macroscopically node-positive) breast cancer, and diagnosis between 2005 and 2014. To reproduce the inclusion criteria of TAILOR RT, patients could have had breast-conserving surgery (BCS) or mastectomy & axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) with 1-3 positive nodes, BCS & sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) with 1-2 positive nodes or mastectomy & SLNB with 1 positive node. To select a cohort of patients likely to have Recurrence Score Results We identified 1,169 eligible women. Median follow-up was 9.2 years. There were 885 patients who received RNI and 284 who did not undergo RNI. The RNI group was younger (median 62 versus 58 years), had a higher rate of nodal involvement, and were more likely to have received chemotherapy (all P 0.05). Conclusion RNI was not associated with improved outcomes in node-positive, low-risk breast cancers. This work underscores the importance of continued accrual onto the ongoing non-inferiority trial of RNI, TAILOR RT.