The New England Journal of Medicine reported more breast cancer patients may avoid post-operative radiation treatment. Whether women received radiation in addition to surgery and hormone therapy, the risk of death was almost the same.
According to research, radiation didn’t have an impact on overall survival rates, so more elderly women with low-risk breast cancer can forgo radiation treatments following surgery, cutting costs and hazardous, painful side effects.
Women in the New England Journal of Medicine research who were 65 years of age or older and had early-stage breast cancers that would respond to hormone therapy. All of the ladies underwent surgery and hormone therapy; they were then split into two groups: one received radiation treatment, the other did not. The survival rates in the two groups were about comparable ten years after surgery, indicating that more women might forego radiation without having an adverse effect on their life.
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that a total of 1326 women were enrolled; 658 were randomly assigned to receive whole-breast irradiation and 668 to receive no irradiation. The median follow-up was 9.1 years.
Lead author Ian Kunkler, a clinical oncologist at the University of Edinburgh, in the study said, “There was particular interest as to whether that might be omitted in older patients. There is a nonspecific fatigue that most patients encounter during radiotherapy and sometimes for several weeks afterwards, and that can be particularly burdensome to older patients, particularly if they have other comorbidities.”
An additional report, “Overcoming Resistance — Omission of Radiotherapy for Low-Risk Breast Cancer by Alice Y. Ho., M.D.Jennifer R. Bellion., M.D. Kunkel, and colleagues report the highly anticipated 10-year results of the PRIME II trial, which show that omission of radiotherapy did not affect survival after breast-conserving surgery in women 65 years of age or older with T1 or T2 (tumors ≤3 cm in the largest dimension), node-negative, estrogen receptor (ER)–positive breast cancer. These data offer a response to the long-standing problem of overtreatment in older women with low-risk breast cancer.”
Radiation still has advantages, according to physicians. In the latest study, women who did not get radiation saw greater risks of cancer recurrence. Radiation will be crucial for some patients, especially those with cancers that are less responsive to hormone therapy or those with longer predicted life expectancies, according to some medical professionals.
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