Patient Power®
Get Email Alerts!
Health Topics
Breast Cancer Health Center
Health Center Home Audio Programs Videos
Search by Keyword:
Search by Health Topic:
View all Health Topics >

Impact of Therapy for Older Women with Breast Cancer

Program: Partial Breast Irradiation for Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients
<< Previous   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   Next >>

Dr. Kim:

For the older patients who are not eligible currently but who may have been eligible previously, we are kind of on an individual, case by case basis we are providing, or we are actually performing the accelerated partial breast irradiation or offering that treatment to them if they want it. There are other things that we look at as far as, you know, where the tumor is located because technically also it has to be in an area where it's, you know, easy to perform. If it's in an area where it's difficult to put catheters in then that would be kind of a, we wouldn't be able to do it for them.

Andrew Schorr:

Dr. Kim, so I mentioned, of course the name of the game is does this lower the rate of recurrence? What do we know now? Are there any study results even from individual institutions?

Dr. Kim:

Sure. And the big institutions have, or the single institutions have been showing us that accelerated partial breast irradiation is looking pretty darned good. The data is looking wonderful for these patients, for early stage breast cancer patients. The numbers are looking, the recurrence rates are looking quite low compared to whole breast radiation. But it has to be understood that these patients who received this accelerated partial breast irradiation prior to the study opening, they were highly selected patients. These are patients with very early stage breast cancers that were potentially older, people we knew that were going to do well whether they got partial breast radiation or a whole breast radiation. But certainly the data is really looking pretty favorable for partial breast irradiation.

Andrew Schorr:

Now, is this offered widely? Obviously you have a lot of experience with it at the SCCA and you have two approaches that you are doing of the three that are around, so is this where you could get this anywhere, or you really want to consider it if you can as part of a study or at least where they have a lot of experience?

Dr. Kim:

Sure. I think I can safely say that our priority first is to, you know, enroll patients on the protocol because that really is our priority, and we really would like to know that information. I know that there are several places in the Seattle area that are, that do have the protocol open. We certainly do here. But off study there are a few places as well in the Seattle area where patients can receive, say, MammoSite or some of the other partial breast approaches. But here at the UW, you know, or at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance at the University of Washington off study I would like to kind of stress we are only offering the multicatheter interstitial approach. The other approaches, this 3 D conformal or the external beam, the mini beams, we are offering that on study only.

Andrew Schorr:

Now, Lisa, you had this multicatheter approach, right?

Lisa:

Yes.

Andrew Schorr:

All right. So I am trying to visualize this from a patient's perspective. I imagine these catheters are very small, so when they are removed, you know, cosmetically how was your breast?

Lisa:

Well, they're, you mean the day after they got removed?

Andrew Schorr:

No, no. Just now, when you have recovered?

Lisa:

Well, I have a series of little tiny whitish dots. That's the only residue that remains.

Andrew Schorr:

Wow. So really cosmetically, the cosmetic result is fine. I mean, it's not a big deal.

Lisa:

Yes, absolutely.

Andrew Schorr:

All right. And what about when you were having it? You know, I have never had radiation, and so what is it like doing this over five days? Maybe just tell us from the patient perspective.

Lisa:

Well, it's kind of an intense experience because you have, I had 20 of these tubes in my breast, and so you can't really dress in your normal clothes, and you go in five, I went in at eight o'clock in the morning, and I went in at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and you get your radiation. And then you come home, and I would just try to take a nap or sleep in between. And those five days are a little bit of lost time for me. I just wanted to get them over with. And then on the last day they immediately after the final radiation treatment, they slipped all the catheters out, and they said I was on my way.

Andrew Schorr:

Well, in going through this, did you, I mean, we all want to fight our cancer, so to be able to do this with a more novel approach, if you will, did you feel good about doing that?

Lisa:

I did feel like I was, I really liked being part of a research study where I was helping other women into the future because this makes just completely logical sense to me that this kind of treatment would be offered.

Andrew Schorr:

I was part of a clinical trial too, and I was like patient number 60, and the medicines that I got for my leukemia is what most people get now, and I look back on that, and I'm so glad I did that. So that leads to another question for Dr. Kim. Dr. Kim, where do you think this is headed? Because we have talked about the people it is right for.

Dr. Kim:

Sure.

Andrew Schorr:

But there are probably many people listening who say, gee, am I a little outside of that, or where somebody listens who has a family member, and they say, well, gee, what if my mom develops breast cancer? She is a little older. Would this be something available to her, if not now in the years to come?

Dr. Kim:

Oh, absolutely. I think that this is, it's a treatment that I think will be, it's here to stay. I think that, you know, we really can't call it experimental anymore because as I said before the older data before the protocol opened was really showing that partial breast radiation is just as successful at reducing the risk of an in breast recurrence in early stage breast cancer patients. So I think if a patient, if someone is listening to this and they feel they have a relative who may be potentially eligible for a partial breast irradiation, I think they should certainly ask about it. Surely it couldn't hurt to just see if potentially they may be eligible for the study. But my suspicion is that once the data is mature, I think partial breast irradiation will truly be another way of delivering radiation for early stage breast cancer patients.

And again as I had mentioned, during the treatments patients really, they don't feel anything. The radiation is painless. I think the only discomfort is potentially putting the catheters into the breast, but during the treatments really there is not much patients feel. And so it's a very nontoxic treatment at least as you are getting it, and side effect wise it is very minimal, and it is a shorter course. So it's very much a win win situation for patients.

Andrew Schorr:

Dr. Kim, let's just turn it around for a second though. What are situations where you definitely need to do whole breast radiation?

<< Previous   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   Next >>