What should patients know about radiation therapy for treating breast cancer?
There are two main points: (1) It is very well established that lumpectomy to negative margins (removal of the tumor and a small, cancer-free margin of tissue around the tumor) combined with radiation therapy provides the same long-term survival as does mastectomy (removal of the entire breast). Furthermore, one of the serendipitous findings with the development of adjuvant systemic therapy has been that such systemic therapy makes radiation therapy even more effective. (In our most recent published experience, local recurrence was less than 2% at five years of survival.) (2) In some patients treated with mastectomy, usually determined by the number of involved axillary nodes (lymph nodes under the arm that contain evidence of cancer), radiation therapy can improve long-term survival rate. Q: At the symposium you are presenting a lecture on the changes in the local treatment of breast cancer and the future of breast cancer treatment. What should patients know about this topic? A: Only
