Trial reportLancet (London, England)2016
5-year results of accelerated partial breast irradiation using sole interstitial multicatheter brachytherapy versus whole-breast irradiation with boost after breast-conserving surgery for low-risk invasive and in-situ carcinoma of the female breast: a randomised, phase 3, non-inferiority trial.
Trial report in Lancet (London, England), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 6 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 247 papers, 16 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Interstitial Brachytherapy Alone Versus External Beam Radiation Therapy After Breast Conserving Surgery for Low-risk Invasive Carcinoma and Low-risk Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) of the Female Breast
Establishment of a Prospective Evaluation of Daily Practice Including the Individual Radiosensitivity Test to the Decision of Daily Practice
Clinical Trial, Randomized, Open Label, With an Active Comparator to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Using Accelerated Partial Irradiation Versus Standard or Hypofractionated Irradiation of the Entire Breast in Patients With Initial Breast Cancer After Conservative Surgery
Doubly Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation After Breast-Conserving Surgery for Early Breast Cancer - High Five (HiFi) APBI Study
SH APBI RISE: Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of a Novel IMRT/VMAT-based Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation Regimen for patIents With Favorable Risk breaSt cancEr
Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation in One Fraction for Patients With Early-stage Disease and Favorable Histological Subtypes (Breast-1F).
Who cites it
247 citing papers in PubMed, 16 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 654 citations in OpenAlex.
- Partial breast irradiation versus whole breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery in early-stage breast cancer: a systematic review.The oncologist · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and cosmetic outcomes of radiotherapy modalities in early-stage breast cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review on the techniques, long-term outcomes, and complications of partial breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery for early-stage breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Comparison of adverse events in partial- or whole breast radiotherapy: investigation of cosmesis, toxicities and quality of life in a meta-analysis of randomized trials.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Partial breast irradiation compared with whole breast irradiation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2023Pooled it
- Radiotherapy of Breast Cancer-Professional Guideline 1st Central-Eastern European Professional Consensus Statement on Breast Cancer.Pathology oncology research : POR · 2022Pooled it
- Partial breast irradiation versus whole breast radiotherapy for early breast cancer.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Comparison of the Oncological Efficacy Between Intraoperative Radiotherapy With Whole-Breast Irradiation for Early Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Pooled it
- Assessment of non-inferiority with meta-analysis: example of hypofractionated radiation therapy in breast and prostate cancer.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- DEGRO practical guideline for partial-breast irradiation.Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2020Guideline
- Second conservative treatment for second ipsilateral breast tumor event: A systematic review of the different re-irradiation techniques.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2020Pooled it
- Brachytherapy Combined With or Without Hormone Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review.Frontiers in oncology · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Intensity-Modulated Brachytherapy (IMBT): Static and Dynamic Techniques.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2019Pooled it
- A systematic review of clinical outcomes and radiotherapy-associated toxicity in multicatheter accelerated partial breast irradiation.Medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Factors influencing harmonized health data collection, sharing and linkage in Denmark and Switzerland: A systematic review.PloS one · 2019Pooled it
- Updated ASTRO guidelines on accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI): to whom can we offer APBI outside a clinical trial?The British journal of radiology · 2018Guideline
- Hypofractionated partial breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery for patients with early stage breast cancer in China Mainland: a single-arm prospective trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- One versus three weeks hypofractionated whole breast radiotherapy for early breast cancer treatment: the FAST-Forward phase III RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2023Trial
- 5-year results of accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) with SBRT (stereotactic body radiation therapy) and exactrac adaptive gating (NovalisClinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2021Trial
- Accelerated partial breast irradiation with 3-dimensional conformal and image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy following breast conserving surgery - 7-Year results of a phase II trial.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2020Trial
187 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
31 authors at 19 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn a phase 3, randomised, non-inferiority trial, accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) for patients with stage 0, I, and IIA breast cancer who underwent breast-conserving treatment was compared with whole-breast irradiation. Here, we present 5-year follow-up results.
methodsWe did a phase 3, randomised, non-inferiority trial at 16 hospitals and medical centres in seven European countries. 1184 patients with low-risk invasive and ductal carcinoma in situ treated with breast-conserving surgery were centrally randomised to either whole-breast irradiation or APBI using multicatheter brachytherapy. The primary endpoint was local recurrence. Analysis was done according to treatment received. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00402519.
findingsBetween April 20, 2004, and July 30, 2009, 551 patients had whole-breast irradiation with tumour-bed boost and 633 patients received APBI using interstitial multicatheter brachytherapy. At 5-year follow-up, nine patients treated with APBI and five patients receiving whole-breast irradiation had a local recurrence; the cumulative incidence of local recurrence was 1.44% (95% CI 0.51-2.38) with APBI and 0.92% (0.12-1.73) with whole-breast irradiation (difference 0.52%, 95% CI -0.72 to 1.75; p=0.42). No grade 4 late side-effects were reported. The 5-year risk of grade 2-3 late side-effects to the skin was 3.2% with APBI versus 5.7% with whole-breast irradiation (p=0.08), and 5-year risk of grade 2-3 subcutaneous tissue late side-effects was 7.6% versus 6.3% (p=0.53). The risk of severe (grade 3) fibrosis at 5 years was 0.2% with whole-breast irradiation and 0% with APBI (p=0.46).
interpretationThe difference between treatments was below the relevance margin of 3 percentage points. Therefore, adjuvant APBI using multicatheter brachytherapy after breast-conserving surgery in patients with early breast cancer is not inferior to adjuvant whole-breast irradiation with respect to 5-year local control, disease-free survival, and overall survival.
fundingGerman Cancer Aid.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.