A targeted radiotherapy treatment may help save lives and spare women who undergo breast surgery weeks of misery, it was reported today.
A major study of a treatment developed in London suggests it can cut deaths by reducing side-effects from radiotherapy.
The treatment, known as TARGIT, was developed for women who undergo partial breast removal for cancer.
Conventionally women would return after surgery for a daily course of radiotherapy directed at the whole breast. But the TARGIT treatment is directed just at the site of the tumour during or after surgery and uses a miniature X-ray device.
The success of the project, over a period of 12 years, was reported in The Lancet today.
The research compared some 1,700 women receiving the targeted treatment with a similar number undergoing the conventional course of radiotherapy.
And it suggests that giving the treatment during surgery is even more effective.
The study showed that recurrence rates for breast cancer were about the same for both treatments.
But overall some 3.9% of women receiving the targeted treatment died compared with 5.3% of those receiving conventional treatment. This was because of lower rates of heart disease and other cancers.
Researcher Professor Jayant Vaidya, of University College, London, said: "The most important benefit of TARGIT for a woman with breast cancer is that it allows her to complete her entire local treatment at the time of her operation, with lower toxicity to the breast, the heart and other organs.
"Our research supports the use of TARGIT concurrent with lumpectomy, provided patients are selected carefully, and should allow patients and their clinicians to make a more informed choice about individualising their treatment, saving time, money, breasts, and lives."
* A second Italian project testing another form of targeted treatment has been less successful, according to a report in The Lancet Oncology today.
Researchers, at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, said their technique, using electron radiation, might still benefit selected women.
Lancet 11 November 2013 [abstract]
Lancet Oncology 11 November 2013 [abstract]
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