Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation Versus Standard or Hypofractionated Whole-Breast Irradiation, in Early Breast Cancer, After Breast-conserving Surgery

To estimate and compare the rate of local recurrence between the experimental and control arms.

Distant tumor time is defined as number of days from randomization until occurrence of distant metastases, death without prior distant progression, or end of follow-up.

Disease-free survival, defined as number of days from randomization until the first occurrence of local recurrence, distant metastases, tumor-related death, death without prior progression, or end of follow-up.

Overall survival time, defined as number of days from randomization until death or end of follow-up.

To evaluate and compared the cost between Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation with Standard and Hypofractionated irradiation

To evaluate the patients quality of life with the help of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). This questionnaire was designed to be cancer specific, multidimensional in structure, suitable for self-administration (brief and easy to complete), and applicable in a wide range of cultural contexts. The scores in each dimension are uniformly transformed to dimensions ranging from 0 to 100, with 0 denoting the negative (low functioning, high symptom burden) and 100 the positive end (high functioning, low symptom burden) of the continuum.

To evaluate the patient quality of life with the help of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Breast-Cancer-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-BR23). The 23-item EORTC QLQ BR23 contains two breast cancer specific functional scales (body image and sexuality) and three symptom scales evaluating arm symptoms, breast symptoms, and systemic therapy symptoms. The minimum and maximum values are 0 and 100, and higher scores mean a better outcome.

To evaluate the patient quality of life with the help of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue (FACT-F). Scores are interpreted according to the guidelines of the Scoring Manual. The higher the number of points, the better the quality of life. To obtain the score, the negative questions are reverted; then the answers of the domains are added up, and a proportional average is carried out in case of non answered items.

To evaluate the patient quality of life and patient satisfaction with the help of the Body Image Scale (BIS). Scores are interpreted according to the guidelines of the Scoring Manual. The Body Image Scale (BIS) is a self-assessment scale designed to assess cancer patients' perceptions of their appearance and identify any changes to those perceptions resulting from a disease or a treatment. The total score ranges from 0 to 30. A higher score means a higher level of body image disturbance.

To evaluate the patient quality of life and patient satisfaction with the help of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Scores for each sub scale (depression and anxiety) are summed-up and range from 0 to 21. Values from 0-7 indicate normal levels, 8-10 are border values and values from 11-21 are considered to be pathological.

To evaluate the results reported by patient and evaluated by doctors, as well as, photographic assessments.

To evaluate if the patient had symptoms of swelling or edema in the arm, breast shrinkage, hardness, pigmentation, necrosis, pain and tenderness in the breast.

To evaluate acute toxicity rate. The maximum grade for acute toxicity will be recorded for each patient at each treatment evaluation using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events.