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How is radiation therapy used to treat breast cancer?

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Radiation Therapy Breast Cancer Radiation Radiation Treatment

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Radiation Therapy X Breast Cancer X Radiation X Radiation Treatment X

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DrAttai (Physician - Surgery - Breast (Verified) ) - 06 / 27 / 2011

Radiation therapy is most commonly used after a breast-conserving lumpectomy - if the breast is not removed with mastectomy, a course of radiation therapy is required. There are a few cases where radiation is also needed after mastectomy. When used after lumpectomy, there are several ways that radiation can be administered. The most common is called "external beam, whole-breast" - typically 5 treatments a week are given for anywhere from 4-6 weeks. Each treatment is very short, and typical side effects are fatigue and possibly skin discoloration and peeling. A newer technique is known as "accelerated partial breast irradiation", or APBI. A catheter (tube) is placed into the breast after lumpectomy; radiation is delivered into the catheter using tiny "seeds", and this treatment is given twice a day, but for only 5 days. As the radiation is more concentrated just where the original cancer was, there is less potential for damage to normal breast tissue. Also because the treatment is given directly within the breast, there is very little potential for damage to the skin. A final method of treatment is intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT). A single dose of radiation is given at the time of the lumpectomy. However 2 problems right now with this technique is that the pathology results are not known at the time of radiation, and there is no long-term results yet. Sorry a lengthy answer but we have so many options!

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Latest Activity: 09 / 07 / 2011
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