Two-thirds of women who have lumpectomies for breast cancer are getting radiation treatment that lasts nearly twice as long as necessary, a new study reports.
The conventional, longer treatment lasts five to seven weeks. But four rigorous studies and guidelines from a leading radiology society conclude that three to four weeks of more intense radiation is just as effective.
Women overwhelmingly prefer the shorter course of radiation, studies have found. It also is less expensive.
Even though 60 to 75 percent of women with breast cancer have lumpectomies, doctors and health insurers say relatively few are getting the shorter treatment because it takes time to change ingrained medical practices.
“If a physician is doing five to seven weeks of radiation for 25 years, particularly if the physician is not a specialist and not in an academic medical center, you will be a bit leery about going to something new,” said Dr. Bruce G. Haffty, professor and chairman of the department of radiation oncology at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. “You are comfortable with the outcomes; patients are satisfied. Now you’ve got something that perhaps costs a bit less, but you wonder: Is it as effective?”
In the new study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, two University of Pennsylvania doctors and their colleagues analyzed data involving 15,643 women who had their breasts irradiated after lumpectomies.
Radiation is used after women have lumpectomies because it reduces the odds another cancer will arise in the breast, and it improves the chances of survival.
