After breast cancer surgery, three weeks of radiation therapy would be as effective as the recommended five. And the side effects will be less.
Radiation therapy is one of the most feared treatments for women with breast cancer. The conclusions reached by a team of British oncologists should therefore reassure them. According to them, three weeks of radiation therapy would be just as effective as the currently recommended five weeks.
The START study included no less than 4,500 women operated on for breast cancer. The overall objective was to compare 25 sessions of radiotherapy at a dose of 50 Gy, with 15 sessions at a dose of 40 Gy. After a ten-year follow-up, the results are clearly in favor of the shorter radiotherapy. Not only does the recurrence rate not differ between the two groups, but the side effects are also less severe. Women who have had “only” 15 radiotherapy sessions are less tired, they suffer less from breast edema or dilation of small vessels (telangiectasias).
“We have clearly shown that when it comes to radiotherapy for breast cancer, you can treat less to cure better,” said Prof. John Yarnold, oncologist at the Institute for Research on Cancer and principal investigator of the study. The shorter option is clearly the best for patients. “Professor Yarnold’s team wants to further investigate to find out whether even lower doses of radiotherapy would be just as effective. A study on 4000 women will be launched. She will compare 15 sessions in 3 weeks to 5 doses in one week.
In France, as in Great Britain, the classic radiotherapy protocol for women operated on for breast cancer is 25 daily sessions at an average minimum dose of 50 Gy. However, in Great Britain, many establishments have radiotherapy protocols of 3 weeks duration have already been put in place since 2008. If doubts remained about this strategy, this large study by Lancet Oncology seems to have swept them away.
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