Brachytherapy: Targeted Breast Cancer Treatment Comes With Risks
Smith said the results of his study didn’t mean that brachytherapy was a dangerous or inappropriate treatment. Instead, patients and doctors should consider the findings when choosing the best course of treatment.
Doctors said much more research on brachytherapy was needed, including the results of an ongoing clinical trial comparing the treatment with whole-breast irradiation.
“The final answer on the appropriate use of brachytherapy is not yet in,” said Dr. Stephen Edge, chairman of breast and soft tissue surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.
How does Brachytherapy work?
Brachytherapy involves placing a radiation source within or close to the cancer. Using brachytherapy, doctors can reduce the radiation exposure to nearby normal tissues that do not need - and can be harmed by - the radiation. Brachytherapy is used to treat many cancers, including prostate cancer and gynecologic cancers.
The beauty of breast brachytherapy lies in the laws of physics: very close to the radioactive seeds, the radiation intensity is very high, but just a short distance away (millimeters) this radiation intensity falls off rapidly. This law of physics gives us a therapeutic advantage: if the seeds are precisely positioned in the tissues containing cancer cells, the normal tissues such as lung, heart, ribs, and skin that are not at risk for having cancer cells can be avoided!
It is regarded as a safe and effective alternative to standard external beam treatment for many patients with breast cancer; overall patient survival with either approach is going to be similar. The primary reason a woman would select breast brachytherapy over standard external beam radiation is time: external beam radiation requires over six weeks of daily treatment, but breast brachytherapy can be completed in one week.
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By Carrie Gann