Breast cancer results good for women with implants
Reported December 01, 2008
CHICAGO (Reuters Health) – Using a cancer treatment approach called brachytherapy, the contraction of tissue around breast implants in women with breast cancer augmentation can be avoided.
This method achieves better tumor control with fewer complications and entails a significantly shorter treatment course than whole breast irradiation, according to a surgeon from the University of Arizona in Scottsdale, who reported the findings here Monday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA 2008).
Brachytherapy involves radiation doses directed to specific sites inside the breast around the tumor. The procedure is less invasive and the results are better than those of whole breast radiation therapy.
“I think this will ultimately become the treatment of choice for women with breast augmentation,” Dr. Robert R. Kuske, also affiliated with the Arizona Oncology Services, told Reuters Health. “At the moment, though, I am the only one on the planet doing this.”
Kuske presented his results with brachytherapy in 70 women with breast augmentation who developed breast cancers and had undergone lumpectomy, removal of the breast cancer only, rather than the whole breast.
“These women received their augmentations 10 to 20 years ago, and they are now getting to the age where breast cancer becomes an issue. These women literally comprise one third of my practice,” he said.
“Whole breast irradiation means that radiation wraps around the augmentation. The tissue around it can contract, which can be very painful,” he explained.
“With brachytherapy, only a very small percentage of the augmentation is exposed. Catheters deliver biologically intense radiation to the area around the lumpectomy only. We get better tumor control, fewer complications, better cosmetic outcome — and the kicker is that it requires a five-day course of treatment as opposed to six and a half weeks (with whole breast irradiation).”
The cosmetic effect was rated excellent in 91 percent of patients and good in the remaining 9 percent. There were no fair-to-poor results. “Normally, with whole breast irradiation, 15 percent to 20 percent of patients have a fair-to-poor outcome and 55 percent of women with augmentations have a fair-to-poor outcome.”
“I place the brachytherapy catheters under CT guidance. I haven’t had any cases of implant puncture and I’ve never had to replace an implant,” Kuske said.
“I use brachytherapy in my nonaugmented patients as well, because it is so incredibly accurate,” he added. “We are enrolling patients without implants now to study the efficacy of brachytherapy in the general breast cancer population.” Approximately 3,300 of the goal of 4,300 patients have been enrolled to date.
Source : Reuters Limited