Breast conserving therapy lauded in study
Monday, November 22, 2004
NEW YORK, Nov 22, 2004
(United Press International via COMTEX)–Women with hereditary breast cancer in breast conserving therapy appear to have no increased risk for recurrence in the treated breast, researchers said Monday.
Breast conserving therapy — lumpectomy and radiation — has been demonstrated to be a safe, effective treatment for non-hereditary or sporadic forms of early breast cancer. But for hereditary breast cancers, the use of BCT is controversial due to conflicting data about increased risk of recurrence in the treated breast and development of new tumors in the untreated breast.
Dr. Mark Robson and colleagues from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City followed 87 women diagnosed with breast cancer and BRCA mutations who were treated with BCT to evaluate their long-term cancer risks.
Ten years after their initial diagnosis, 13.6 percent of the women with a genetic mutation, or hereditary cancer, had experienced a recurrence similar to previously published recurrence rates for women with non-hereditary breast cancers treated with BCT.
The study will be published in the Jan. 1 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society