Fig. 3

Schematic representation of the radiotherapy study. Patients were enrolled after a confirmed histological diagnosis of breast cancer. All patients underwent conservative surgery and received standard fractionated adjuvant radiotherapy (2 Gy per session, total 50 + 10 Gy). Blood samples were collected after diagnosis was confirmed histologically, but before surgery (Sample 0), after surgery; the day of starting radiotherapy (immediately before fist irradiation, Sample 1); at the last day of radiotherapy (6 weeks after starting radiotherapy, Sample 2), and 6-8 weeks after the end of the radiotherapy (for the majority to the patients this was 12 weeks after starting radiotherapy, Sample 3)