Radiation therapy cuts breast cancer return:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Women who receive radiation therapy following a mastectomy have a lower risk of recurrent breast tumours than who receive no postoperative radiation, say US researchers. Data from a 469-patient trial showed that post-mastectomy radiation reduced isolated local-regional tumour recurrence rates from 45% to 13.3% in patients with close or positive margins. For patients with involvement of 20% or more lymph nodes, the recurrence rate fell from 27% to 11%, reported lead researcher Wendy Woodward, of the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center.