Connect
Discussion
Comment receiving replies
Replies to "@nancyk71 Intraoperative radiation is not nearly as effective as external beam radiation. When you look at..."
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Mar 24 4:22pm | Replies (86)
Comment receiving replies
@nancyk71 Intraoperative radiation is not nearly as effective as external beam radiation. When you look at the recurrence data from the major IORT trials, the recurrence rates are very similar to the non-treatment arm on studies evaluating omission of radiation in low-risk disease. There is also the risk of still requiring external beam radiation when you have the IORT which is before the final pathology is resulted.
Replies to "@nancyk71 Intraoperative radiation is not nearly as effective as external beam radiation. When you look at..."
Connect
@saraheja
I'm not sure where you are getting your information.
There is, I agree, the risk of still needing some external beam radiation if the cancer is likely to have already spread (e.g., no clear margins or extensive lymph-node involvement), but the information that I have found says in early stage breast cancer IORT is just as effective as external radiation, and safer for the heart and lungs. I didn't want to attach 1 million websites and studies here, so here is simply one summary from the surgical breast care group at Columbia University, who presumably know the research so far…
https://columbiasurgery.org/conditions-and-treatments/intraoperative-radiation-therapy-breast-cancer