Benefit of Breast Conservation Therapy Confirmed

A community study of 626 women who had breast conservation therapy for invasive breast cancer over a 14-year period showed that the recurrence rate was 4% at five years and 8% at 10 years, confirming the findings of national studies. The study was presented at the European Conference on Strategies and Outcomes, in Edinburgh (UK), by doctors from the Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia (RCOG, Atlanta, USA).

Breast conservation therapy (BCT) allows a woman to keep her breast by removing the tumor (lumpectomy), followed by radiation therapy, which controls microscopic cancer and reduces the recurrence rate by 75%. A second study examined 110 women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma-in-situ, a pre-malignant condition that can progress to invasive cancer. These women were also treated with lumpectomy and radiation therapy over a 14-year period. The breast cancer recurrence rate was 2% at five years and 10% at 10 years.

According to the RCOG, these studies are significant because they represent the largest data set presented by a U.S. community-based treatment program and they reveal the effectiveness of BCT outside the clinical trial and academic institution setting. "The low recurrence rates in these studies document that with careful quality control, excellent results, equivalent to national series, can be achieved in the community setting,” said Dr. Hamilton Williams, a RCOG doctor.