|
 |
News
|
Location And Directions... |
The Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center is located at our Williamson
St. Campus.
|
MAMMOSITE© BREAST CANCER RADIATION DRAMATICALLY REDUCES DURATION OF
TREATMENT
5-day treatment offers "gift of time"
Women with early stage breast cancer can now benefit from an innovative
radiation therapy treatment which can be completed in less than 20 percent
of the time required for traditional treatments.
The new treatment option offered at Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center,
called MammoSite© therapy, is usually completed in five days and is
considered the treatment of choice for thousands of women who would
otherwise require up to six weeks of daily radiation therapy. "Often,"
reports Linda Veldkamp, Chief Physicist and Director of Radiation Oncology, "patients say
their lives are too busy and don't have a lot of time for their treatment.
Now, we can offer many women an effective breast-sparing treatment option
that can be delivered in the shortest amount of time. MammoSite therapy
gives women the gift of time and lets them get back to their daily lives."
The traditional course of radiation therapy following a lumpectomy is
delivered over six or more weeks on a daily basis to ensure that the tumor
does not recur. Now, however, the innovative MammoSite treatment can reduce
the time required for post-operative radiation therapy from six weeks to as
little as 5 days.
Today, more and more women with early stage breast cancer are choosing to
effectively treat their tumor and preserve their breast through an option
known as Breast Conservation Therapy (BCT). Yet only 60% of women who are
eligible for BCT receive it instead of an invasive mastectomy. The
expectation is that with the MammoSite treatment option even more women will
choose BCT.
The MammoSite procedure starts with a breast sparing surgical removal of the
cancerous tumor via a lumpectomy. "During or shortly after lumpectomy
surgery, the patient undergoes a minimally invasive procedure wherein a
MammoSite, a small balloon attached to a thin catheter, is gently inserted
into the lumpectomy cavity -- the space left inside the breast after the
tumor is removed," explained Dr. James Frost, a surgeon at Trinitas
Hospital. "The balloon end of the catheter is inflated with saline solution
so that the surrounding tissue conforms to the shape of the balloon," said
Dr. Ronald D. Pallant, the first surgeon at Trinitas to perform the
Mammosite procedure. The surgical site is then dressed and the patient is
sent home to recover.
During subsequent out-patient radiation therapy sessions, (usually twice a
day for five days), a "seed" smaller than a grain of rice is inserted
through the catheter into the MammoSite apparatus. There, the seed remains
for just a few minutes where it delivers a customized and targeted dose of
radiation to the lumpectomy site and then is removed. Because the
radioactive seed is inside the balloon, focused radiation is delivered only
to that internal area of the breast where the cancer is most likely to
recur. From a safety perspective, Veldkamp, points out that "some
tumors are very close to the chest wall and MammoSite's confined and
targeted treatment minimizes the radiation exposure to vital organs such as
the heart and lungs while directing it right around the tumor area."
MammoSite is the mostly widely-used therapy in a category called partial
breast irradiation (PBI). MammoSite has been used to treat more than 17,000
breast cancer patients. The first four-year data presented at the American
Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology meeting in October 2005
demonstrated that no patients experienced recurrence after treatment with
MammoSite. A five-year follow-up study published in the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute found that PBI using a similar technique to
MammoSite RTS produces comparable results to conventional whole breast
radiation therapy in preventing breast cancer recurrence in appropriately
selected women treated with BCT.
Mammosite is an outpatient therapy that minimizes the effect of radiation to
healthy tissue and reduces the potential for side effects. The procedure
offers good to excellent cosmetic results for most women and no radiation
remains in the woman's body between treatments or after the final treatment
is over.