Radiation Reduces Breast Cancer Recurrence in Older Patients

Ivanhoe Newswire
Tuesday, January 23, 2007; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Older women with breast cancer may be able to get the same benefits from radiation therapy as younger patients, despite the tendency of doctors to prescribe this therapy less often to older patients.

New research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., reveals radiation therapy after lumpectomy along with taking the drug tamoxifen for five years can dramatically reduce the risk of both cancer recurrence and new tumors in older women with early breast cancer. These treatments are standard care for younger patients, but older women are less likely to receive them.

Researchers looked at women age 65 or older with early stage breast cancer confined to the breast or lymph nodes. They followed the progress of women 1,837 women who had their cancers removed by either a mastectomy or lumpectomy.

Researchers report 20 percent of those who had either type of surgery had a second cancer during follow-up. Women who had a lumpectomy but no radiation therapy had a risk of recurrence 3.5-times higher than women who had radiation therapy after their surgery. The increased risk of any recurrence was 60-percent higher for women for women who did not receive radiation.

The study also found women who did not have chemotherapy who took the drug tamoxifen for less than a year had a 90 percent higher risk of recurrence than those who took the drug for five years. Tamoxifen blocks the effects of estrogen on the body. It is often used to treat tumors sensitive to estrogen.

"Based on our findings, we recommend that mastectomy, or lumpectomy with radiation therapy, along with adequate duration of hormone therapy for women with hormone-responsive tumors, be considered standard therapy in women of all ages and conditions, except for those with very limited life expectancies," reports lead author Ann M. Geiger, M.P.H., Ph.D., from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

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SOURCE: CANCER, published online Jan. 22, 2007