Radiation in a flash

AUSTRALIAN breast cancer patients will be among the first in the world to be treated with a new form of radiation therapy that is completed in just eight minutes, not weeks.

At the moment patients have to make dozens of trips to hospital over weeks to receive radiation therapy after surgery to remove cancerous tissue.

However intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) delivers concentrated radiation in a single dose.

About 50 Victorian breast cancer patients will be treated with IORT using the Xoft Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System. According to manufacturer iCAD, IORT with the Xoft System allows radiation oncologists and breast surgeons to work together to administer one precise dose of radiation to a tumour site at the time of surgery.