The traditional radiation treatment schedule for patients who have had a lumpectomy for early stage breast cancer is 15 to 30 treatments delivered once a day for 3 to 6 weeks. This treatment schedule can be inconvenient and costly for elderly, rural, uninsured, and minority patients. This study will evaluate a new radiation treatment schedule called whole-breast accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy (AHF-RT). AHF-RT delivers higher doses of radiation in fewer treatments than traditional radiation therapy. The AHF-RT treatment course is completed with 5 radiation treatments delivered once a week for 5 weeks.~The purpose of this study is to determine if accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy (AHF-RT) is a safe, effective, more convenient, and less costly alternative to traditional radiation that will offer the same chance of cure with no additional side effects.
The goal of this study is to explore the safety, effectiveness, quality of life, and cost effectiveness of accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy (AHF-RT) as treatment after lumpectomy in patients with early stage breast cancer.