A trial looking at radiotherapy during surgery for early stage breast cancer (TARGIT-A)

This trial compared external radiotherapy with radiotherapy given during surgery (intra operative radiotherapy) for breast cancer.

When this trial was done, the standard radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer was external radiotherapy. Having radiotherapy reduces the chance of breast cancer coming back after surgery.

With external radiotherapy, you go to the radiotherapy department for daily treatment once you have recovered from surgery. This is a little like having an X-ray and takes a few minutes each time. The usual treatment is radiotherapy 5 days a week, for up to 6 weeks. This is called a course of radiotherapy.

In this trial, some people had a single dose of radiotherapy during surgery instead of a course of radiotherapy afterwards. This is called intra operative radiotherapy, or IORT. The surgeon puts an applicator into the breast during surgery. The applicator delivers radiotherapy directly to the breast tissue.

The main aim of this trial was to see if intra operative radiotherapy is as good as external radiotherapy at stopping breast cancer coming back after surgery.