Reply to the Letter to the Editor by Vargo et al.

We appreciate the supportive comment from Vargo and Beriwal about our finding [1]. Certainly, we share similar concerns regarding the absence of international consensus guidelines for target volume delineation. The optimal implications and future applications of the patterns-of-failure studies are probably more complicated than what we think, as previously reviewed [2–4]. Patterns-of-failure will continue to be changed over time as patients are diagnosed in early stages and undergo lesser invasive surgery, and as systemic therapy improves.

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