Radiating health

American Fitness, Sept-Oct, 2003

Post-mastectomy radiation therapy can reduce breast cancer recurrence rates, reports a study presented last October at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The study compared 469 patients who had undergone chemotherapy and postoperative radiation after their mastectomies to 1,031 patients who had no post-operative radiation. The median follow-up time for all patients was 10 years. Patients who underwent post-mastectomy radiation experienced reduced local-regional recurrence rates in all nodal categories.

"According to our data, certain patients can greatly benefit from post-mastectomy radiation," says Wendy A. Woodward, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and lead author of the study. "Patients whose cancer involves 20 percent or more of the removed lymph nodes or who have close or positive surgical margins can significantly reduce their chances of a recurrence with post-operative radiation therapy."