Boost for breast treatment
Monday June 7th, 2010
A single treatment of highly-targeted radiotherapy can be used to treat women with breast cancer - reducing potential side-effects and hospital visits, according to the findings of a major study.
British researchers said that for some women the procedure is as good as conventional treatment - which exposes the whole breast and chest to radiation.
The treatment can be used after breast surgery to prevent recurrence of cancer, according to a report at a major US cancer conference.
More than a thousand women from nine countries took part in the research. The women were mainly aged between 45 and 70 and were diagnosed with early cancer - making surgery to save the breast possible.
The findings were reported to the conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, USA, at the weekend and also published by The Lancet.
Researchers Dr Jayant Vaidya, of University College London, UK, and David Joseph, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, said the treatment should avoid radiation of the heart, lung and gullet.
They say: "Consequently, the damage to these structures, which can occur even with modern external beam radiotherapy, will have been avoided.
"For selected patients with early breast cancer, a single dose of radiotherapy delivered at the time of surgery by use of targeted intraoperative radiotherapy should be considered as an alternative to external beam radiotherapy delivered over several weeks."
Professor Michael Baum, of University College, told the conference "millions" would "ultimately benefit from advances in breast cancer treatment."
Professor Frederik Wenz, head of radiation oncology at the University Medical Center Mannheim, Germany, said: "In addition to the profound benefits that TARGIT single-dose treatment offers to breast cancer patients, it can also be performed within any hospital or treatment centre at the time of surgery.
"It is our sincere hope that single-dose radiation therapy will become more widely available to patients who do not have acceptable access to treatment today."
But other experts, writing in The Lancet, said long-term follow-up of the patients is still needed and also results from further studies.
The Lancet, in press 2010
Tags: Australia | Cancer | North America | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
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