Targeting tumour spares breast cancer patients harsh side effects
BREAST cancer patients could be spared the debilitating side effects of radiotherapy such as hair loss, aches, soreness and fatigue by targeting only the tumour site with radiation, a study has found.
Currently, most women are given full breast radiotherapy after diagnosis, in the belief that it will stop the disease spreading beyond the area of origin.
However, a new study, which followed more than 2,000 women for five years, found that targeting the tumour site was just as effective, with the cancer coming back only one per cent of the time.
The trial results, published in The
Lancet, were hailed as “a major step forward” by charities and have led the authors to call for doctors to stop giving patients unnecessary radiation.
Dr Charlotte Coles, reader in breast radiation oncology at Cambridge University, chief investigator for the trial and first author of the publication, said: “We started this trial because there was evidence that if someone’s cancer returns, it tends to do so close to the site of the original tumour, suggesting that some women receive unnecessary radiation to the whole breast.
“Now we have evidence to support the use of less, but equally effective, radiotherapy for selected patients.” More than 50,000 women in Britain are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 11,000 will die from the disease.
The trial studied women in their fifties whose tumours were picked up early. Under normal radiation therapy, where the full breast is targeted, 99 per cent of women with early-stage cancer are expected to be disease free after five years. The research showed that a targeted procedure had the same results.
Women who received partial radiotherapy reported fewer long-term changes to the appearance and feel of their breast than those who had radiotherapy to the whole breast.
Prof Judith Bliss, scientific lead for the study within the Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit at the Institute of Cancer Research, said: “We’re delighted that the results of this trial have the potential to lead to a real change in the way selected breast cancer patients are treated. The technique used here can be carried out on standard radiotherapy machines so we anticipate that these results will lead to further uptake of this treatment at centres across the country and worldwide.”
Prof Arnie Purushotham, Cancer Research UK’S senior clinical adviser, said: “One of the challenges when treating early stage breast cancer is trying to minimise the side effects that can have a real impact on a woman’s life, without affecting the chances of curing her. This approach could spare many women significant physical discomfort and emotional distress.”
Hilary Stobart, 62, from Cambridgeshire, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and was treated with partial breast radiotherapy as part of the trial. She said: “I had very few side effects – just some soreness at the start, but that was it.”