Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Short-Term Radiation Therapy Is Successful

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Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 11 Feb 2010 - 0:00 PDT

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Research suggests that a concentrated three-week course of radiation therapy is just as efficient as the standard five-week regimen for women with early-stage breast cancer.

A team of researchers was led by Dr. Tim Whelan, a professor of oncology of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. Their findings showed that women who received the accelerated therapy have a low risk of breast cancer for as long as twelve years after treatment. The results are to be published in the Feb. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Also, the findings have been presented to a meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

The study concluded that for select women who have undergone breast-conserving surgery, a shorter, more intense course of therapy is as safe and effective as the standard treatment.

The three-week treatment is called accelerated hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation. Women who receive it have a low risk of side effects and of recurrence of the cancer more than a decade after treatment. Therefore, it is just as efficient as the standard five-week course of radiation following surgery to remove the tumor.

According to Dr. Whelan, the study's conclusions will transform cancer treatment practice in Canada, North America and worldwide.

Dr. Whelan, a radiation oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre at Hamilton Health Sciences, explains: "This is win-win: shorter intense treatment is better for the patient and less costly to provide."

In early-stage breast cancer, many women are able to undergo breast-conserving therapy to keep their breast after treatment. In general, they first have a lumpectomy to remove the cancer. Treatment then follows with a course of radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancer cells.

Researchers randomly assigned 1,234 women from Ontario and Quebec to be treated with either accelerated radiation or standard radiation, between April 1993 and September 1996. The participants were monitored for twelve years in order to find out if the accelerated whole-breast radiation was as effective as the standard treatment.

Ten years after treatment, breast cancer returned in 6.2 percent of patients treated with the accelerated radiation therapy. It returned in 6.7 percent for patients treated with standard therapy. Cosmetic outcome from the radiation treatments was good or excellent in both groups of patients.

Whelan said additional research is currently investigating even shorter more intensive therapy.

"We're now in the midst of further study on more intense radiation over an even shorter time, and we're seeing positive results."

New England Journal of Medicine
McMaster University

Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.)
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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