Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Partial Breast Irradiation Comes with More Complications

According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there was no significant difference in survival rates for older women treated with whole-breast irradiation versus those treated with partial breast radiation, or brachytherapy.  But, those with brachytherapy faced more complications:


• The study was on data from 92,735 women 67 or older.
• 6,952 had undergone brachytherapy 
•  85,783 had whole-breast radiation
• 5- year survival rates were similar for the two groups, with overall survival at 87.7 percent.
• Those with brachytherapy had higher rates of infection, complications, and breast pain.
• Complications often led to a full mastectomy or, as the authors say, "failure to preserve the breast."


See the full story at CancerNetwork.

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