Promising Advances In Treating Breast Cancer

Written by yvonnethornton on June 9th, 2010

As many as 12.7 percent of American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives, according to the National Cancer Institute. The disease, if caught early, is very survivable. The big questions about treatment have included how aggressively to attack the tumors to keep cancer from recurring.

Two new studies, reported in The New York Times, suggest that a woman’s long-term survival doesn’t necessarily hinge on choosing the most aggressive treatment. And, if that conclusion is confirmed by further studies, it’s very good news, because treatment can come with significant side-effects.


“A new study has found that for certain women getting a lumpectomy, the standard treatment — an operation to remove underarm lymph nodes that can leave them with painfully swollen arms — may not be necessary. Compared with not removing the nodes, the surgery did not prolong survival or prevent recurrence of the cancer.

“And a second study found that a single dose of radiation, delivered directly to the site of the tumor right after a woman has a lumpectomy, was as effective as the six or so weeks of daily radiation treatments that most women now endure.”

Two notes of caution, however. The study on lumpectomy followed patients for five years; the study on radiation followed patients for four years. Breast cancer can recur after five years so we won’t know for sure that less aggressive treatment makes sense unless a longer term follow-up yields similarly promising results. But each study is cause for hope if not yet celebration.

– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH

 

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