Postmastectomy Radiation Treatment Rates as a Quality Measure: An Opportunity for Compliance Through Collaboration

Excerpt

During the past century, management of breast cancer has evolved from the Halstedian era approach of extensive surgical resection as the only hope for cure to a multidisciplinary treatment approach with locoregional and systemic therapies based on patient- and tumor-related factors. Multimodal therapy is often needed to establish both systemic and local control, and this approach has resulted in improved survival rates. Radiation therapy has come to play a crucial role in the setting of breast-conservation therapy and for selected patients treated with mastectomy. Adjuvant radiation therapy, routinely offered to patients with breast cancer after partial mastectomy, has been proven to decrease the risk of recurrence and improve breast-cancer-specific mortality compared with surgery alone.1 …