Resumen
For breast cancer patients who do not wish to undergo any form of surgery, various non-surgical treatments have been investigated. Radiotherapy is considered the most important modality, but conventional radiotherapy alone or concurrent chemoradiotherapy do not lead to high local control rates. So, to increase curability, radiosensitization strategies, including the use of hydrogen peroxide injection before radiation and hyperthermia plus oral tegafur-gimeracil-oteracil potassium (S-1), have been investigated. These strategies have yielded promising outcomes, with local control rates of ~97%. A trial of carbon ion radiotherapy is ongoing, and particle therapy should be further investigated in the future. Image-guided ablation therapy including radiofrequency ablation and focused ultrasound have been investigated; although complete ablation rates of =70% have been reported, combination with radiotherapy may be necessary to treat the extensive intraductal components. Non-surgical treatment of breast cancer is evolving steadily and will become a valuable treatment option for patients who refuse surgery.