Concentrated Doses of Radiotherapy Shown to be
Better in Treating Breast Cancer
Behind the Cancer
Headlines®
July 10,
2006
Giving breast
cancer patients fewer but larger doses of radiotherapy may be as safe and as
effective at reducing the risk of cancer returning, according to Cancer
Research UK trial results published in Lancet
Oncology.
A team of
researchers at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the Gloucestershire
Oncology Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research and the University of Wisconsin,
trialed an experimental schedule of 13 larger doses that appears to offer the
same protection against cancer returning in the same breast as the
international standard of 25 smaller doses, without any increase in side
effects.
The ten-year
trial followed 1,410 women who had a lumpectomy for early breast cancer
followed by different radiotherapy treatments. The findings from the study
could mean simpler and more effective radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer
patients and create cost savings for health services in the future.
Usually, patients
have radiotherapy treatment once a day, from Monday to Friday, with a rest at
the weekend, meaning patients have to travel to hospital every weekday for five
weeks. A reduction in the number of hospital visits could lessen anxiety for
patients and save valuable time and money spent traveling to and from hospital.
The women
participating in the study were randomly divided into three groups to rule out
any bias. One group was given the standard treatment of 25 doses in five weeks,
and the other two groups were given 13 doses in two slightly larger amounts
over the same period. The researchers then monitored the women in the three
groups and showed that a regimen of 13 doses can apparently offer an outcome at
least as good as the standard treatment.
Lead researcher,
Professor John Yarnold from The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal
Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We think it should be possible to give
fewer but higher daily doses of radiotherapy to the breast to prevent cancer
from returning without harming the patient’s healthy tissues.
“However, we will
have to wait for the results of our further trials that have followed this
study before we can confirm that the strategy is more effective than the
standard treatment in the long term.”
SOURCES:
Lancet Oncology,
Cancer Research