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Partial breast irradiation (PBI) following breast-conserving surgery was the area of interest for our evaluation of the use and perceived value of surgical clips for breast radiation therapy planning. Processes and Resources: Clinic pathologic criteria were used in a retrospective institutional assessment to identify patients who should get PBI, and tumor bed visibility was assessed using CT planning scans. Following that, a questionnaire about the application and benefits of surgical clips for planning breast radiation therapy was made available online to radiation oncologists. Patients who were qualified for PBI were located. Only of the patients had surgical clips, and due to uneven clip location,
over of them did not help with tumor bed localization. In a similar vein, almost 20% of survey participants said that less than 50% of the time, surgical clips are inserted in the tumor bed. Nearly every respondent said that surgical clips make planning breast radiation therapy easier and that they support the creation of standards to increase the consistency with which surgical clips are placed in the tumor bed following breast-conserving surgery. Two-thirds of those surveyed regularly treat eligible patients with PBI, with moderate hypo fractionated regimens being the most popular choice.
