Fig. 1.

Patient evaluation. Schematic illustration of the patient cohort, therapy and clinical outcome. Forty patients with breast cancer were included into the study, 5 patients had an unknown outcome, 14 patients remained disease-free for at least 3 years after RT and 18 patients remained disease-free for at least 5 years after RT, 2 patients developed contralateral recurrence or distant metastasis, 1 patient developed a secondary endometrial carcinoma after 2 years. The time-points of blood withdrawals (t1, before RT; t2, after 30 Gy; t3, end of RT; t4, 6 weeks after RT; t5, 6 months after RT; t6, 1 year after RT) in the course of therapy are indicated in the lower part of the graph