New radiation treatment for post-lumpectomy patients is faster, easier

Breast cancer is hard enough. Treatment should be quick and easy.

That's the thinking of many physicians who have opted to offer MammoSite, a type of radiation that cuts treatment time from several weeks to just five days.

MammoSite therapy is a type of partial breast radiation that follows a lumpectomy. A small balloon is placed in the cavity where the tumor was taken out and twice a day for five days a small wire is placed in the balloon that emits radiation to about a centimeter out.

"It's a technology that allows the radiation to get to the area that's most at risk," said Dr. Jonathon K. Foley, a breast surgeon with the Breast Care and Diagnostic Center in Cape Girardeau.

Foley said the standard treatment after a lumpectomy was still whole-breast radiation, but when more cancer was found, "the studies kept coming back saying recurrences were always very close to the site of the removal."

MammoSite and other partial breast radiation --interstitial brachytherapy or a 3D conformal radiation -- target the immediate areas around where the tumor first occurred.

"The reason MammoSite works so well is you're actually radiating the patient from the inside," said Trent Mullis, director of radiation/oncology at Southeast Missouri Hospital. "It's much easier to define the treatment area."

MammoSite saves the rest of the breast and other organs from full-on radiation. It reduces the negative cosmetic effects of radiation and it takes only a fraction of the time. Instead of a five- to seven-week treatment course of radiation five days a week, the patient comes in twice a day for 5 to 15 minutes over the course of five days.

"I think the minute they told me that, it made sense to me," said Sikeston, Mo., resident Patsy Eason. "It sounded like what I wanted right from the beginning. I don't understand why anybody wouldn't do it."

Eason was diagnosed with breast cancer in May of 2007 and had a lumpectomy in June. Her husband lost his first wife to breast cancer and Patsy had lost her mother to the disease.

She chose to go with a lumpectomy and MammoSite instead of a full mastectomy to preserve her breasts and because she said she feels that sometimes a mastectomy can give people a false sense of security.

"They feel like that takes care of the whole problem," she said. "But if it happens again, them babies are coming off."

Eason said for one week she drove up from Sikeston, had her morning appointment and would go shopping or visit friends during the day. Six hours later, after her errands or meetings, she would have the second treatment and go home.

"That was the most tiring part of it, I think, was the travel," Eason said.

Physicians said some patients will simply stay in town for the five days of treatment.

"We draw patients from Paducah, [Ky.]" Mullis said. "We've had patients from Cape, Scott, Perry, Union, Stoddard, Madison [and] Butler [counties]."

He said the majority of patients drive, but five days of driving is better than five to six weeks of daily appointments. The price is comparable for the high-dose rate interstitial brachytherapy treatments for patients who qualify.

"This is for women who have smaller tumors without the cancer being spread to the lymph nodes," said Dr. Joseph Miller, a radiation oncologist with Southeast Missouri Hospital.

He said most of the women who come through are pleased with the short amount of time and the lack of adverse effects. External radiation can cause breast swelling, redness of the skin and tenderness.

"A lot of those issues are less bothersome with this treatment," Miller said.

Other factors have to be considered, like if the tumor has been completely removed and whether the cavity is too close to the skin.

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246

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