Women who have radiotherapy after breast cancer surgery enjoy improved survival chances, researchers report today.
A study of more than 10,000 women looked at the impact of radiotherapy following breast conservation surgery.
British researchers studied the fate of all the women who have taken part in 17 trials of the treatment around the world.
The analysis, reported in The Lancet, shows that radiotherapy dramatically cuts recurrence of disease. Ten years after diagnosis, the disease had recurred in 19 per cent of women who had radiotherapy compared with 35 per cent of those who did not.
There was also evidence of an impact of death rates. At 15 years this fell from 25 per cent to 21 per cent as a result of the extra treatment.
The researchers say there is also no evidence of radiotherapy increasing the risk of death from other diseases.
Led by Dr Sarah Darby, of Oxford University, UK, the researchers say that radiotherapy destroys microscopic traces of cancer in the breast.
They write: "The overall findings from these trials show that radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery not only substantially reduces the risk of recurrence but also moderately reduces the risk of death from breast cancer."
They say the way breast cancer treatment is done has changed since many of the trials – but the study provided evidence that radiotherapy helps to prevent the disease returning.
They write: "It might also roughly halve the recurrence rate in future patients given breast-conserving surgery."
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