Partial breast irradiation dials down exposure while maintaining quality of life
Low-risk breast cancer patients who opt for accelerated partial breast irradiation—a one-week alternative to traditional whole-breast radiotherapy—see the same quality of life as women who undergo conventional treatment, researchers reported at this year’s European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) Congress.
The work, led by Rebekka Schäfer, MD, and a team at University Hospital in Würzburg, Germany, contributes to recent findings suggesting targeted radiotherapy is as effective, if not more, as standard radiotherapy when it comes to survival and preventing cancer recurrence. But since the former option is more invasive, Schäfer said in an ESTRO release, she and her colleagues wanted to ensure patients’ quality of life remained intact, too.
“This treatment focuses only on the area of the breast where the tumor has been removed, and so it offers a number of advantages,” she said. “It allows us to deliver a higher dose of radiation to a smaller area, which means the course of treatment is shortened from three to six weeks down to one week or less. It also makes it easier to avoid unnecessary radiation to other parts of the body, such as the heart and lungs.”
Partial breast irradiation uses small tubes to deliver higher-than-usual doses of radiotherapy directly to the site of a breast tumor over a short period of time, Schäfer et al. wrote in The Lancet Oncology. Since the treatment is short and sweet, it could improve quality of life for women fighting breast cancer—a crucial consideration as cancer survivors live exponentially longer.
The researchers evaluated quality of life data for more than 600 women treated at 16 European hospitals, all of whom had surgery to remove an early-stage breast tumor. Half of the study patients underwent whole breast radiotherapy, while the other half received partial breast irradiation. Both groups saw similar results.
“Research like this is vital because it allows us to offer treatment choices,” Schäfer said. “For a variety of reasons, patients may find it difficult to manage a treatment schedule that lasts up to six weeks. They may have to travel a long way to reach hospital, or they may wish to return to work as soon as possible, so they might prefer a treatment that can be carried out in a week or less.”
According to the ESTRO release, Schäfer and the team are planning a 10-year follow-up of the women to further analyze quality of life down the line.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.