Shorter Doses Of Radiation May Be Possible For Some Breast Cancer Patients

By: Kafi Drexel

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Nearly 200,000 women across the country develop breast cancer each year. Most need radiation to keep the cancer from coming back. Now more doctors are heralding results that indicate shorter radiation cycles may be just as effective as longer, more traditional courses. NY1 Health & Fitness reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.

Most breast cancer patients who need radiation go through a course of treatment that can be five weeks or longer. But now more research is showing radiation schedules for women with earlier stage cancers may be safely shortened to as little as three weeks when treating the full breast.

More doctors are starting to say shorter cycles may help make greatly improve quality of life for patients.

"It's a long time for the patients, even though it's a few minutes and it is a little debilitating," said Dr. Lauren Cassell, chief of breast surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital. "The most significant side effect is fatigue."

There are also partial breast treatment options that can make treatment even shorter. Using a partial breast radiation option called MammoSite, Dr. Cassell was able to treat patient Maria Skirnick within the span of just a work week.

"What we do is at the time of surgery is we place a catheter into the cavity where we have removed the tumor," explained Cassell. "Once we have confirmed that our margins are clear and the lymph glands, which are tested at the same time, are negative, then what is done in the office is to exchange that catheter for the therapeutic catheter, through which we're able to insert radiation twice a day for only five days."
A four-year analysis of MammoSite found recurrence rates similar to whole breast radiation therapy.

It's an option busy-working professional. Skirnick said she jumped at the chance to have following a lumpectomy.

"After day three or day four I said to the radiologist, how is it that I can feel so good while I am having radiation?" she recalled. "The first day I had the treatment, when I walked out of the hospital in the middle of the afternoon, I thought 'I'm 20 percent done. There's only four more days and radiation is over.'"

A Type-1 diabetic, Skirnick says she's had no side effects.

Advocates from Self-Help for Women with Breast or Ovarian Cancer call the advances promising. But they feel more research needs to be done before shortened radiation becomes the true, going standard of care.

"Before we really look at changing what the best practice is," said Alice Yaker of SHARE. "We need to make certain that we know that the evidence is long-term enough so we can feel comfortable with it."

Some doctors have also echoed that sentiment. And since no patient is the same, when making decisions about treatment, the best advice is always to consult with your doctors.