Radiation Therapy

• Radiation therapy—also called radiotherapy—is a highly targeted, highly effective way to destroy cancer cells that may linger after surgery.
• Radiation used to treat cancer is high-energy and invisible.
• Radiation beams are focused on the breast or breast area from which cancer was removed.
• Most women affected by breast cancer receive external beam radiation, where a machine creates the radiation and directs it into the breast.
• The actual delivery of radiation treatment is painless. But the radiation itself does cause some pain and discomfort over time.
• Internal radiation temporarily places a radioactive pellet or seeds inside the breast, where the cancer once was. It can be given slowly, over hours to days (called brachytherapy) or quickly (called high-dose rate radiation).
  • For brachytherapy, radioactive seeds are placed within small plastic tubes within the area of the breast affected by breast cancer.
  • For high-dose radiation, a radioactive pellet is placed inside a device within the affected area (the most common device used is the MammoSite balloon catheter).
• Internal radiation may be also used as a radiation "boost" at the beginning or end of treatment. In addition, it can be the primary method of treatment directed only to the part of the breast where the cancer once was.

Read more about radiation therapy.