Radiation cuts breast cancer deaths
Two major studies have found that when combined with traditional chemotherapy, radiation therapy greatly reduces the risk of death in breast cancer patients. In one Danish study, 1,708 women were followed since 1982. Of those tracked, 54% of women who received radiation therapy were alive 10 years later compared with 45% of women who did not receive radiation therapy. A Canadian study, which followed 318 women over a 15-year period, found that radiation treatments cut the death rate from breast cancer by 29%.
Radiation therapy fell out of favor several years ago after studies found that even though it cut the risk of having a tumor reappear, it failed to increase a woman’s chance of survival. At this point, doctors turned to anti-cancer drugs. Researchers say the use of radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy as a common treatment for breast cancer may become more widespread as the benefits become better known.
[See: Overgaard M, et al. Post-operative radiotherapy in high-risk premenopausal women with breast cancer who receive adjuvant chemo-therapy. N Engl J Med 1997; 337:949-55.]
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