Older women may not benefit from radiotherapy following breast conservation surgery

A Rhode Island Hospital radiation oncologist says in a new editorial that research exploring the impact of radiotherapy in older women with low risk of breast cancer recurrence has little effect on actual clinical decisions. The editorial written by David E. Wazer, MD, chief of the department of radiation oncology, is published in the currently being published.
Breast-conserving therapy (BCT) has shown to have comparable outcomes to mastectomy, allowing women to preserve their breast without compromising their chance of being cured of cancer. BCT also has been associated with improved quality of life, as compared to mastectomy. Radiation therapy is an integral part of BCT, and its benefit is clearly dependent on the baseline risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) after surgical excision alone, and is small in patients at low risk of recurrence. Multiple trials have shown that the IBTR risk decreases with age, and has prompted analysis of the benefit of radiotherapy for older patients with breast cancer.
‘If an older patient has been treated for breast cancer, and has a low risk of recurrence, there may be no clinical reason to subject them to radiation therapy,’ Wazer said. ‘It