Symptom palliation of hypofractionated radiotherapy for patients with incurable inflammatory breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Incurable inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) patients occasionally suffer from general symptoms such as breast pain, bleeding, ulceration, and discharge, and thus require palliative radiotherapy (RT). Hypofractionated RT has many advantages in palliative settings, but very few studies on IBC have been conducted. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of hypofractionated RT on symptomatic IBC patients. METHODS: Twenty-two patients with IBC who underwent hypofractionated palliative RT between 2010 and 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. RT was performed at a total dose of 42.5–55 Gy with 2.5–3 Gy per fraction. The treatment effects were evaluated with respect to symptom improvement, tumor response, and treatment-related toxicity. RESULTS: The main symptoms that the patients complained of before RT were pain, bleeding, and discharge. According to the percentage of symptom relief compared with pre-RT symptoms, the number of patients with < 30, 30–70%, and ≥ 70% were 2 (9.1%), 7 (31.8%), and 13 (59.1%), respectively. Eighteen (81.8%) patients showed tumor response. No patient experienced grade 3 or higher acute or chronic toxicity during a median follow-up period of 13 months. In univariate analysis, symptom type was a significant factor for predicting the degree of symptom relief. Meanwhile, RT field and C-reactive protein increase were significant factors for predicting the incidence of radiation-induced skin toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: Hypofractionated RT could safely and effectively relieve symptoms among incurable symptomatic IBC patients.