This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (39)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Surgery, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Mattia Intra, MD; Giovanna Gatti, MD; Alberto Luini, MD; Viviana Galimberti, MD; Paolo Veronesi, MD; Stefano Zurrida, MD; Antonio Frasson, MD; Mario Ciocca, MD; Roberto Orecchia, MD; Umberto Veronesi, MD, PhD

Arch Surg. 2002;137:737-740.

At the European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy, we have focused our interest on the use of intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) in limited-stage breast cancer that is conservatively treated. A new technique to perform IORT was applied in 185 patients from July 1, 1999, to October 31, 2001. As the surgeon plays a crucial role in this procedure in selecting the patients, performing the breast resection, preparing the gland as a target to receive IORT, delivering the radiation directly to the mammary gland via a dedicated applicator, and, finally, reconstructing the breast, each phase of the surgical technique has been completely standardized and is described herein. The use of IORT in the conservative treatment of breast cancer could allow the course of external fractionated-dose radiation therapy to be completely avoided; IORT dramatically reduces radiation exposure of the skin, lung, and subcutaneous tissues and avoids the irradiation of the contralateral breast, which contributes to a very low incidence of radiation-induced sequelae. In our experience, IORT for limited-stage breast carcinoma is easy to perform and only briefly prolongs the duration of the surgical procedure.

From the Breast Division (Drs Intra, Gatti, Luini, Galimberti, Veronesi, Zurrida, Frasson, and Veronesi), the Medical Physics Unit (Dr Ciocca), and the Radiotherapy Division (Dr Orecchia), University of Milan, Milan, Italy.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Full-Dose Intraoperative Radiotherapy With Electrons in Breast Surgery: Broadening the Indications
Intra et al.
Arch Surg 2005;140:936-939.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Advances in Radiation Therapy: Conventional to 3D, to IMRT, to 4D, and Beyond
Bucci et al.
CA Cancer J Clin 2005;55:117-134.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Full-Dose Intraoperative Radiotherapy With Electrons During Breast-Conserving Surgery
Veronesi et al.
Arch Surg 2003;138:1253-1256.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Meeting Highlights: Updated International Expert Consensus on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer
Goldhirsch et al.
JCO 2003;21:3357-3365.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT