Abstract P1-10-04: Accelerated partial breast irradiation versus whole breast irradiation: Health-related quality of life analysis from a phase 3 trial
Authors: Meattini I , Saieva C , Desideri I , Miccinesi G , Francolini G , Meacci F , Muntoni C , Scotti V , De Luca Cardillo C , Marrazzo L , Simontacchi G , Pallotta S , Sanchez L , Casella D , Bernini M , Orzalesi L , Nori J , Bianchi S , Livi L 
Published: March 2017

Background. Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) represents a valid option for selected early breast cancer (BC); potential advantages of APBI include shorter treatment time, improved safety profile, and a cost reduction compared with standard fractionation.

We reported the final analysis of quality of life (QOL) results from a phase 3 randomized trial comparing standard adjuvant radiotherapy (50 Gy in 25 fractions, plus 10 Gy boost) to APBI using IMRT technique (30 Gy in 5 daily fractions). The 5-year results have been recently published showing equivalence in terms of local control (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02104895).

Methods. Overall 205 patients (105 APBI and 100 WBI) fully completed the given questionnaires at time 0 (RT start), time 1 (RT end), and time 2 (2-year follow up). Patients were asked to compile two specific questionnaires on QOL, the EORTC QLQ-C30 as a reliable and valid measure of the QOL of cancer patients in multicultural clinical research settings, and the BR23 module as a supplementary questionnaire for assessing QOL issues relevant to patients with BC. The statistical software SPSS (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) for Windows (version 22), and STATA (StataCorp LP, College Station TX77845, USA) for Windows (version 12) were used. Chi-squared test or Mann Whitney U test were used to compare the individual characteristics of the patients between two arms. Mean and standard deviations (SD) were calculated for all QOL domains, and all scores were compared between APBI and WBI arms using the Mann Whitney test due to non-parametric distribution of data. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the scores between age groups.

Results. Mean values (and SD) of QLQ-C30 scores according to arm in the series of 205 BC patients at time 2 (time 0 vs time 2), showed significant improvement in favor of APBI in terms of global health status (mean 75.5 vs 59.5, SD range 13.3-22.0; p&lt;0.0001), main functional (p&lt;0.01), and symptom scales (p&lt;0.01). Concerning the BR23 module, APBI showed significantly better outcome in terms of body image perception (mean 89 vs 72.1, SD 13.2-26.6; p&lt;0.0001) and future perspective (84.8 vs 57, SD 23.1-28.5; p&lt;0.0001) among functional scales; breast (6.1 vs 18.9, SD 6.6-18.2; p&lt;0.0001) and arm symptoms (11.7 vs 19.6, SD 13.4-19; p=0.002) among symptom scales.

Conclusions. Women treated with APBI reported a significantly better QOL outcome as compared with women treated using WBI. QOL improvement was evidenced in terms of functional, symptoms, and global health status/QOL scales, both at the end of radiation and at a 2-year follow-up time.

Citation Format: Meattini I, Saieva C, Desideri I, Miccinesi G, Francolini G, Meacci F, Muntoni C, Scotti V, De Luca Cardillo C, Marrazzo L, Simontacchi G, Pallotta S, Sanchez L, Casella D, Bernini M, Orzalesi L, Nori J, Bianchi S, Livi L. Accelerated partial breast irradiation versus whole breast irradiation: Health-related quality of life analysis from a phase 3 trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-10-04.