Radiotherapy delay linked to breast cancer recurrence
March 3rd, 2010 - 5:37 pm ICT by ANILondon, Mar 3 (ANI): The longer a woman is left waiting for radiotherapy after breast cancer surgery, the more chance there is that the disease will come back, according to a new study.
The authors from the United States, Canada and Japan suggest that starting radiotherapy as soon as possible can minimise this risk.
Four to six weeks is generally accepted as a reasonable interval between cancer surgery and radiotherapy, but evidence on the effect of waiting times in patients with breast cancer is mixed.
So, the researchers studied the relation between interval to radiotherapy and recurrence of breast cancer.
They analysed national cancer records for 18,050 US women who were diagnosed with early stage breast cancer during 1991-2002 when they were aged 65 or older. All women received breast conserving surgery and radiotherapy, but not chemotherapy.
Demographic information was identified using data from the 2000 US population census, and women were followed up for an average of five years.
The results showed that starting radiotherapy more than six weeks after surgery was associated with a modest but significant increase in local recurrence.
More than one in four women in the study started radiotherapy after this time and 734 experienced a local recurrence at five years.
Further analysis showed a continuous relation between time to radiotherapy and local recurrence, suggesting that initiating radiation therapy as soon as possible could minimise local recurrence risk.
The study has been published on bmj.com. (ANI)
- Smoking 'ups breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women' - Mar 02, 2011
- Clinicians should carefully use X-rays on pregnant women, infants: Study - Feb 11, 2011
- Ice ball therapy offers hope of breast cancer cure - Mar 18, 2010
- Circulating tumour cells in blood up death risk in early-stage breast cancer patients - Dec 11, 2010
- One-shot radiotherapy 'effective against breast cancer' - Jun 06, 2010
- Aspirin reduces risk of cancer recurrence in prostate cancer patients - May 03, 2011
- Removing 2mm around tumours cuts chances of breast cancer returning - Oct 19, 2010
- Study: Breast cancer linked to breast density - Oct 08, 2010
- Alcohol intake after breast cancer diagnosis may increase recurrence risk - Sep 16, 2010
- Possible clues to tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer patients found - Mar 31, 2011
- Starting hormone therapy at menopause 'ups breast cancer risk' - Jan 29, 2011
- Annual mammograms beginning at 40 save 71pc more lives: Study - Jan 28, 2011
- Wake-up call on breast cancer in India (Feature) - Oct 28, 2010
- New standard treatment for breast cancer at early stages established - Dec 04, 2010
- Worrying about breast cancer returning can hit women's quality of life - Mar 28, 2011
Tags: breast cancer, breast cancer recurrence, breast cancer surgery, canada, cancer records, chemotherapy, demographic information, four women, interval, japan, london, national cancer, population census, radiation therapy, recurrence of breast cancer, recurrence risk, six weeks, stage breast cancer, waiting times
