The Five.

It’s popular, not only among cable news viewers, but also among patients receiving radiation. Throughout the pandemic we’ve talked extensively about the plethora of data supporting the safety and efficacy of five-fraction radiation courses across various disease sites, coupled with an absence of data suggesting otherwise. So do patients really need to be suffering through a pandemic in order to enjoy these abbreviated treatments? We know, we know, the standard argument for things like early-stage breast cancer is that five-year follow-up just isn’t enough to inform long term risk of recurrence. That’s why we love this practical look at the many large phase 3 trials of days gone by evaluating longer breast radiation courses to shorter ones. Did 10-year results ever change from 5-year ones? Neither in regards to recurrence rates nor toxicity—the latter, we’ll remind you, only ever favored hypofractionation. | Gillespie, Pract Radiat Oncol 2021