Eleonora Teplinsky: Can we omit radiation for low risk patients after lumpectomy?

Eleonora Teplinsky shared on LinkedIn:

“New Trial presented at SABCS 2023 by Dr. Reshma Jagsi and colleagues and published in Journal of Clinical Oncology – can we omit radiation for low risk patients after lumpectomy?

Which patients were eligible?

• Postmenopausal patients ages 50-69 years old, stage 1, tumor size 2cm or smaller, lymph node negative, margins 2mm or greater, ER+/PR+/HER2- and Oncotype 18 or lower.

Participants had a lumpectomy and agreed to take at least 5 years of endocrine therapy and did NOT receive radiation.

What were the results?

• Participants had an average age 62, average tumor size 10mm, Oncotype average 11. 186 participants were followed for at least 56 months.
• Overall and breast cancer–specific survival rates at 5 years were both 100%.
• The 5-year freedom from any recurrence was 99%. Only 2 patients recurred within 5 years and 6 additional patients recurred after 5 years but no distant recurrence (local regional recurrence only- breast or axilla).

This study shows a very low 5-year risk of recurrence in this low risk patient population. Longer term data is needed and a larger randomized study is ongoing. It’s important to remember also that endocrine therapy has side effects and some people stop or don’t take it and so if there’s a potential concern for this, we would not want to omit radiation.
In the future, this could potentially allow us to omit radiation therapy in this population.

What questions/comments do you have about this study?”

Source: Eleonora Teplinsky/LinkedIn

Eleonora Teplinsky is a medical oncologist specializing in breast and gynecologic oncology. She is the head of breast and gynecological medical oncology at Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Care in Paramus, New Jersey, and a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Her clinical and research interests focus on young women with breast cancer, survivorship, exercise oncology, and the use of social media in oncology. She is passionate about oncology education and advocacy on social media and is the host of the INTERLUDE Podcast, where she shares the stories and experiences of those who have been affected by cancer.

Dr. Teplinsky is the co-lead of the The Collaboration for Outcomes using Social Media in Oncology (COSMO) – a social media lab working to provide a venue for social media research in oncology.