Survival comparison between postoperative and preoperative radiotherapy for stage I–III non-inflammatory breast cancer

To compare the survival benefit between preoperative and postoperative radiotherapy for stage I–III non-inflammatory breast cancer patients, we conducted a retrospective cohort study using surveillance, epidemiology and end results databases. Our study recruited patients who had been diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer and underwent surgery and radiotherapy. The overall survival was calculated by Kaplan–Meier method. Cox risk model was used to determine the impact of radiotherapy according to stage, molecular subtype and other risk factors. Propensity score matching was used to balance measurable confounding factors. Of all the 411,279 enrolled patients varying from 1975 to 2016, 1712 patients received preoperative radiotherapy, and 409,567 patients received postoperative radiotherapy. Compared with the postoperative radiotherapy group, the preoperative radiotherapy group showed significantly higher risks of overall mortality and breast cancer-specific mortality. Survival differences in treatment sequences were correlated with stage, molecular subtypes and other risk factors. According to the results of this study, preoperative radiotherapy did not show a survival advantage, and postoperative radiotherapy is still the primary treatment. However, preoperative radiotherapy also has some theoretical advantages, such as phase reduction and recurrence reduction. Therefore, it is still worthy of further exploration.