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Would you consider PBI plus covering the regional lymph nodes for a LN+ breast cancer in the remnant of the axillary tail?

If a patient had a stage I contralateral breast cancer and received bilateral mastectomies with implant reconstruction 2 decades ago and now has breast cancer in the remnant of the axillary tail with a positive node, what radiation fields would you use?
3 Answers
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Radiation Oncology · Allegheny Health Network, Pittsburgh
Answered on

Was this patient cN0 and had a positive SLN or did they have an ALND?

In the setting of a cancer following prophylactic mastectomy (sounds like the original cancer was contralateral) with a positive node, my preference would be to cover chest wall + RNI.

I would say that PBI covering regional nodes ...

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Radiation Oncology · St. Johns Health Center
Answered on

I would need a lot more information to answer this question, though it has to be said regional nodes plus PBI is an unusual option.

My targets could be “All or Nothing” depending on age, receptors, how the node was found (clinically, sentinelly), nodal extent, extent of staging, the anticipated reco...

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Radiation Oncology · Radiation Medicine Associates
Answered on

I have had to treat a patient with this exact clinical scenario. I treated the resection bed and adjacent level 1 and 2 axillary nodes with Univ of Florence protocol for APBI. She did well. A 3-4-year follow-up does show some mild skin hyperpigmentation and subcutaneous fibrosis at the axillary tail...

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