More Radiation Shows Benefits for Women with Breast Cancer

  Having more radiation rather than less could be beneficial to women undergoing treatment for breast cancer according to new research.  A team of scientists in Canada have conducted a study of nearly 2,000 women and found significant advantages for those who opt for radiation of the entire breast and nearby lymph nodes.  The extra radiation appears to reduce breast cancer recurrence and extend survival without causing additional toxicity.  Doctors say these latest findings could alter the way physicians treat women with breast cancer.  
 (AFP) CHICAGO — Extra radiation treatment lowers the rate of breast cancer recurring in women who have had tumors surgically removed, according to preliminary results of a study published Saturday.
"These results are potentially practice-changing," said Timothy Whelan, an oncology professor at McMaster University of Canada and lead author of the clinical study.
More than 1,800 women who had breast-conserving surgery participated in the study, receiving whole breast radiation (WBI) alone or WBI along with radiation to the surrounding lymph nodes.
Five years later, "there were statistically significant benefits for the group receiving the added (lymph node radiation) therapy," the study said.
Women who received radiation treatment to the breast and lymph nodes had a "41 percent lower rate of recurrences near the tumor site" compared to the women who received breast radiation alone.
They also had "a 36 percent lower rate of cancer recurrences in other parts of the body" after five years, the study said.
All of the women also had been treated with adjuvant chemotherapy or endocrine therapy.
Whelan said the findings "will encourage physicians to offer all women with node-positive disease the option of receiving regional nodal irradiation."
Adding the lymph node radiation, he added, "improved disease-free survival, lowered the risk of recurrences, and there was a positive trend toward improved overall survival, while not greatly increasing toxicities."