Breast Cancer Alternative Treatment Protocol

At the September American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology Meeting in Boston, Dr. Timothy Whelan presented information regarding a shortened radiation protocol for early stage breast cancer. For select types of breast cancer, radiation treatments can be reduced in number of total treatment sessions and the recurrence outcomes remain roughly the same. Dr. Whelan’s study was supported by the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance. The specific differences in cancer recurrence, radiation morbidity and subcutaneous tissue rates were not statistically significant between the longer term and shorter term protocols. The U.S. cost savings will vary depending on reimbursement circumstances but the Canadian cost savings was stated to be about 33% for the shorter protocol. (News link below) 

In the real world, one physician commented confidentially to me that self-employed radiation oncologists would lose income based upon this shortened protocol and might be less apt to endorse it as a treatment recommendation if money were a consideration. But the main benefit (besides saving health care dollars) is the patient impact perspective.

The context of one patient example yielded a reduction from 33 to 16 treatments - meaning that the patient was in radiation therapy for approximately 3 weeks versus the traditional 6 weeks. The net total amount of radiation was nearly equivalent however the reduced number of treatments helped the patient avoid common skin irritations and some fatigue. Treatment decisions need to be made before starting any treatment as the course is essentially set once it begins.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASTRO/11005

10/31/08 Reader feedback: Here is the original post: http://catalystoncology.com/2008/10/breast-cancer-alternative-treatment-protocol/