radiation therapy in treating post-menopausal women with early stage breast cancer undergoing surgery

Conditions: Ductal Breast Carcinoma In Situ; Estrogen Receptor Negative; Estrogen Receptor Positive; HER2/Neu Negative; Invasive Cribriform Breast Carcinoma; Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, Not Otherwise Specified; Lobular Breast Carcinoma In Situ; Mucinous Breast Carcinoma; Papillary Breast Carcinoma; Progesterone Receptor Positive; Stage I Breast Cancer; Stage II Breast Cancer; Stage IIIA Breast Cancer; Stage IIIC Breast Cancer; Tubular Breast Carcinoma

Summary: this phase ii trial studies how well radiation therapy works in treating post-menopausal women with early stage breast cancer undergoing surgery. radiation therapy uses high energy x rays to kill tumor cells. this may be an effective treatment for breast cancer.

primary objective: i. for select patients with early stage breast cancer undergoing wide local excision followed by single fraction radiation therapy (sfrt), we will evaluate rates of observer-rated toxicity, cosmetic outcomes and patient satisfaction, objective measures of toxicity and quality of life as well as delivery of intended dose. secondary objective: i. locoregional control reported at five years. outline: patients undergo wide local excision breast surgery and sfrt over 60-100 minutes once negative margins are obtained. after completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and then every 6 months for 2 years.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * core needle biopsy (e.g. mammotome, core, stereotactic, ultrasound guided) showing invasive mammary cancer (with or without concomitant ductal carcinoma or lobular carcinoma in situ) or ductal carcinoma in situ; acceptable histologic types of invasive mammary cancer include ductal, tubular, mucinous, papillary, cribriform and "nos" (not otherwise specified); invasive lobular cancer is excluded * age \>= 50 years and postmenopausal with no menses for at least one year prior to study enrollment * age \> 70 years with invasive breast cancer clinical size =\ = 50 years and postmenopausal with any grade ductal carcinoma in situ (dcis) clinical extent =\< 1.5 cm (clinical tumor size will be determined by pre-operative breast imaging-mammography, ultrasound and/or magnetic resonance imaging; in cases of multiple measurements, the largest recorded single dimension will be used to determine eligibility) * hormone receptor status * estrogen or progesterone receptor positive or * estrogen and progesterone receptor negative and clinical tumor size =\< 1.0 cm * human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (her2)/neu negative on the core biopsy analysis defined as 0 or 1+ by immunohistochemistry or not amplified by fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis * tumor \>= 0.5 cm from skin as defined by breast ultrasound * unicentric tumor * axillary lymph nodes negative by pre-operative physical examination in all cases and pathologic examination from surgery for invasive disease * negative surgical margins, defined as no margin-labeling ink on tumor cells from margin evaluation exclusion criteria: * initial core biopsy showing invasive lobular cancer * estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor negative tumor with clinical size \> 1 cm * any her 2+ breast cancer (immunohistochemistry 3+; or amplified by fluorescence in situ hybridization \[fish\]) * cancer in a patient with a known inherited susceptibility mutation in breast cancer (brca)1 or brca2 * multicentric breast cancer (two foci of known cancer in the breast separated by greater than 5 cm, or in separate quadrants * clinically or pathologically positive axillary lymph nodes * any prior breast cancer * prior breast radiation therapy