Breast Cancer Patients May Not Need Radiation
Breast Cancer Patients May Not Need Radiation
Women 70 and Older With Early-Stage Cancer Fare Well With Just Surgery, Drugs
Sept. 1, 2004 -- Older women with early-stage breast cancer don't routinely need radiation following breast-conserving surgery, a newly published study suggests. The findings could eventually change clinical practice for as many as 40,000 breast cancer patients a year, experts say.
Lumpectomy, also called breast-conserving surgery, is one treatment for women with early breast cancer. Unlike mastectomy, or removal of the entire breast, surgeons try to spare as much of the normal breast tissue as possible. Lumpectomy is usually followed by radiation for women with early-stage breast cancer. Studies have shown that lumpectomy with radiation is as effective as mastectomy in these women.
Now a new study shows that women aged 70 and older who did not get radiation after breast-conserving surgery fared as well in the long term as those who did.
The findings are reported in the Sept. 2 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"We have suspected for some time that lumpectomy without radiation may be just as good as surgery with radiation in this group of patients," lead researcher Kevin Hughes, MD, of Massachusetts General Cancer Center, tells WebMD. "This study confirms this, but the message is not that an older patient with early disease should never get radiation. A woman should decide what level of treatment she is comfortable with after discussing it with her doctor."
The study involved more than 600 women with breast cancer aged 70 and older. All of the women had small tumors (2 cm or less), and all tumors were estrogen-receptor positive, meaning that the tumors depended on the hormone estrogen to grow. Most older breast cancer patients have this type of tumor.
Following breast-conserving surgery to remove the tumors, half of the women were treated with the drug tamoxifen alone and the other half received tamoxifen plus radiation. Tamoxifen is used to block the interaction between estrogen and breast cancer cells.
The women were followed for an average of five years. The rate of cancer recurrence in the treated breast was 1% in the tamoxifen-plus-radiation group vs. 4% among women taking tamoxifen alone. This was the only finding that was significantly different in the study.
Breast Cancer Patients May Not Need Radiation
Women 70 and Older With Early-Stage Cancer Fare Well With Just Surgery, Drugs
Sept. 1, 2004 -- Older women with early-stage breast cancer don't routinely need radiation following breast-conserving surgery, a newly published study suggests. The findings could eventually change clinical practice for as many as 40,000 breast cancer patients a year, experts say.
Lumpectomy, also called breast-conserving surgery, is one treatment for women with early breast cancer. Unlike mastectomy, or removal of the entire breast, surgeons try to spare as much of the normal breast tissue as possible. Lumpectomy is usually followed by radiation for women with early-stage breast cancer. Studies have shown that lumpectomy with radiation is as effective as mastectomy in these women.
Now a new study shows that women aged 70 and older who did not get radiation after breast-conserving surgery fared as well in the long term as those who did.
The findings are reported in the Sept. 2 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"We have suspected for some time that lumpectomy without radiation may be just as good as surgery with radiation in this group of patients," lead researcher Kevin Hughes, MD, of Massachusetts General Cancer Center, tells WebMD. "This study confirms this, but the message is not that an older patient with early disease should never get radiation. A woman should decide what level of treatment she is comfortable with after discussing it with her doctor."
3 Deaths in Each Group
The study involved more than 600 women with breast cancer aged 70 and older. All of the women had small tumors (2 cm or less), and all tumors were estrogen-receptor positive, meaning that the tumors depended on the hormone estrogen to grow. Most older breast cancer patients have this type of tumor.
Following breast-conserving surgery to remove the tumors, half of the women were treated with the drug tamoxifen alone and the other half received tamoxifen plus radiation. Tamoxifen is used to block the interaction between estrogen and breast cancer cells.
The women were followed for an average of five years. The rate of cancer recurrence in the treated breast was 1% in the tamoxifen-plus-radiation group vs. 4% among women taking tamoxifen alone. This was the only finding that was significantly different in the study.
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