Additional irradiation of the tumor bed (boost) is part of the standard of care in breast cancer therapy. In intraoperative radiotherapy the boost element of the external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) regime can be replaced and be administered to the target tissue immediately after wide local excision. This boost element of the overall treatment regime is highly accurate as it is applied at the time when the tumor bed is visualised during surgery. In two studies on the intraoperative boost with the INTRABEAM from ZEISS, comprising a total 450 patients, the five-year recurrence rate was a low 1.5 to 1.7 percent. This does not reflect select patients with a low recurrence rate.1,2
The intraoperative boost therapy is tolerated very well by patients. As studies on acute and long-term toxicity following the intraoperative boost (20 Gy) have shown, there are no conspicuous effects. Doctors and patients also found the cosmetic result following the intraoperative boost with the ZEISS INTRABEAM System to be very good.3,4
The treatment with the TARGIT Boost method shows an improved treatment outcome and can additionally reduce traditional postoperative radiotherapy by 5-8 days.2
Comparison of the breast cancer recurrence rate (Non-randomised). With the ZEISS INTRABEAM System the recurrence rate is only half of the recurrence rate of conventional radiotherapy.1
This method has over 14 years of clinical experience. Clinical results reveal that the recurrence rate is only approximately a low 1.7 percent in the first five years after surgery.1