One Time Radiation Hit Promising

An effort by nine countries to determine the level of radiation that is truly necessary for breast cancer patients could be of monumental impact, according to the team leaders of just-released research.

 The research itself began in 2000 and followed women for four years following radiation treatment for breast cancer.

Some of the women were treated with a one-time hit of radiation following surgery, while others underwent a complete course of daily radiation.  After four years, the risk of the cancer returning was about the same for both methods.

Dr. Michael Alvarado, one of the lead authors of the study from the University of California San Francisco, said that from a convenience standpoint, this could be huge.  He is quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle as saying that should a one-time hit be determined to be appropriate for a particular patient, she could receive the radiation while still sedated from surgery.

Another benefit of the technique is that the exact location of the tumor can be targeted by using a mobile radiation machine that can be inserted into the breast (BBC).

There is one drawback to the new radiation possibility, however, and that is that it’s not unusual for breast cancer to return after more than five years; to truly determine the method’s efficacy, the team admits that the next step in the process will be to follow patients for up to 8 years.

Details of the research are being published today in the medical journal Lancet.