Radiation benefits women with early breast cancer

NEW YORK, 07 feb 2009– A review of published studies confirms that the addition of radiation therapy to breast-conserving surgery in the treatment of a noninvasive early form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) substantially decreases the risk of recurrence of either DCIS or invasive breast cancer in the affected breast.

In addition, there appear to be no long-term side effects from the radiation, such as damage to the heart or lungs.

The review, conducted by Dr. Annabel Goodwin at The University of Sydney in Camperdown, Australia and colleagues, is published in the latest online issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

The investigators identified four well-designed, randomized controlled trials involving 3,925 women that compared the addition of radiation therapy to breast-conserving lumpectomy.

All the subgroups analyzed benefited from addition of radiation, Goodwin and colleagues found.

Specifically, the data suggest that the addition of radiation therapy after breast conserving surgery reduces the risk of recurrence of either DCIS or invasive breast cancer in the treated breast by 51 percent.

In a comment from the Health Behavior News Service, Dr. Monica Morrow of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York said that the review confirms what is currently recommend by most doctors for their patients with DCIS who undergo breast-conserving treatment.

"The best way to minimize the chance of recurrence is with radiation," Morrow said.

Most physicians will recommend breast-conserving surgery for DCIS. However, "studies show that the bigger the patient's role in decision-making, the greater the likelihood the patient will end up with mastectomy," she said.

"This is because most patients don't distinguish between DCIS and invasive breast cancer, because a lot of the stuff they find on the Internet is written about invasive cancer."

Morrow pointed out that there is little difference in survival rates between mastectomy and breast-conserving surgery for women with DCIS.

"What I tend to emphasize to my patients with DCIS is that no matter which treatment they choose, their risk over the next 15 years of dying of something else is greater than their risk of dying of breast cancer."

SOURCE: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009.