Hypoxia does not predict lack of benefit from adjuvant radiotherapy for patients with early stage breast cancer

There is a need to identify patients with early stage breast cancer for whom radiotherapy and its associated toxicities might be avoided. Tutzauer et al. hypothesised that a hypoxia biomarker might be used but found that adjuvant radiotherapy following surgery reduces risk of recurrence irrespective of hypoxia status.

Automated summary

This study aimed to find a method to identify patients with early stage breast cancer who can avoid radiotherapy and its associated toxicities. However, the results showed that adjuvant radiotherapy after surgery can reduce the risk of recurrence regardless of the hypoxia status.