Radiation Therapy
A research letter estimates that modern radiation therapy techniques are less likely to cause heart problems than radiation therapy techniques used 20 or more years ago.
Researchers urge women who have had breast cancer treatment to keep their heart health in mind as they build long-term health.
In a small study, internal radiation after lumpectomy didn't cause the capsules of existing breast implants to contract, leading to good cosmetic results.
A small study has found that a specific type of counseling called cognitive behavioral therapy, along with hypnosis, can help ease the fatigue that often can be a side effect of radiation therapy to treat breast cancer.
Research suggests that women diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer who have lumpectomy and radiation don't have a higher risk of local recurrence than women who have mastectomy.
For women diagnosed with DCIS considered to have a low risk of recurrence treated with lumpectomy alone, the risk of DCIS recurrence or developing invasive disease in the same breast increased through 12 years of follow-up and didn't level off.
A study suggests that if cancer is found in the sentinel lymph node, axillary radiation reduces recurrence risk about the same amount as axillary surgery; axillary radiation also causes less lymphedema than axillary surgery.
Women who received radiation therapy using a special technique known as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), were 17% less likely to develop scaling or peeling skin in the area exposed to radiation compared to women who got radiation therapy using traditional techniques.
Research suggests that some women diagnosed with scleroderma and breast cancer treated with radiation had long-term skin tightening or thickening in the treatment area, but no disease flare-up.
Skipping sentinel lymph node biopsy and/or radiation therapy didn’t affect recurrence rates or survival for women age 70 and older diagnosed with early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative, clinically node-negative breast cancer.
Research shows that women diagnosed with DCIS who were treated with radiation therapy after surgery have a lower risk of the cancer coming back than women treated only with surgery.
While treatment strategies using the Oncotype DX DCIS test weren't cost effective compared to strategies that didn't use the test, the results make it very clear that a woman's treatment preferences are extremely important to the value that a treatment has.
Research suggests that a shorter, higher-dose radiation schedule after lumpectomy to remove DCIS may reduce recurrence risk just as much as a standard radiation treatment schedule.
A study has found that women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer are less likely to have lymphedema if they get radiation to their axillary lymph nodes instead of having them surgically removed.
A large group of cancer experts created new guidelines for treating early-stage breast cancer; the guidelines recommend that chemotherapy, targeted therapies, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy should be based on the characteristics of each individual cancer being treated.
More U.S. women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer were treated after lumpectomy with a whole-breast radiation schedule that was shorter than the conventional regimen, but this shorter schedule still wasn't prescribed as often as it could be.
A study compared the standard radiation therapy schedule to shorter, lower-dose radiation schedules and found that the risk of early-stage breast cancer coming back (recurrence) was about the same for all the schedules. The lower-dose schedules also had fewer effects on healthy breast tissue.
A study found that a web-based tool can help women feel less stressed and anxious after breast cancer treatment ends, but the effect only lasted as long as the program.
Research suggests that internal mammary node radiation for women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer that is large and/or has spread to the lymph nodes doesn't reduce recurrence risk or improve survival.
A small study suggests that women older than 60 who have surgery to remove a relatively lower-risk type of invasive breast cancer -- luminal A breast cancer -- and who get hormonal therapy after surgery may be able to skip radiation therapy after surgery.
Radiation therapy after lumpectomy to remove low-risk DCIS reduces the risk of recurrence, but had no effect on overall survival.
A single dose of radiation therapy given during lumpectomy surgery offered about the same outcomes for early-stage breast cancer as traditional whole-breast radiation therapy given after surgery.
A small study shows that the risk of a serious heart problem, such as a stroke or heart attack, often is the same or greater than the risk of breast cancer recurrence.
A new study shows that women who smoked and got radiation therapy to treat breast cancer had a much higher risk of lung cancer later on compared to women who got radiation and didn't smoke.