Adding Radiation Keeps Breast, Prostate Cancer Away
Reported October 21, 2005

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Two new studies show adding radiation to the treatment mix for breast cancer patients and prostate cancer patients keeps cancer away.

In the first study, researchers from Vienna, Austria, studied 869 women who underwent a lumpectomy for early-stage breast cancer. After the lumpectomy, half the women received radiation in combination with hormone therapy (either with the drug Tamoxifen or Arimidex); while the other half of the group received hormone therapy alone.

Results show adding radiation therapy to hormone therapy after surgery is better at keeping the cancer from recurring. There was only one relapse of cancer in the group receiving radiation along with hormone therapy. In the group receiving hormone therapy alone, there were 13 relapses. Researchers mention patients in both groups lived equally as long and were just as likely to have the cancer spread to other parts of the body.

Richard Poetter, M.D., from the University Clinic for Radiotherapy and Radiobiology in Vienna, says, "Although the overall survival rate for both patients was unchanged, radiation therapy as part of the post-lumpectomy regimen prevents the recurrence of cancer in the breast by almost 100 percent. It seems that the current standard of care of surgery followed by radiation and hormone therapy is the best treatment for women with early-stage breast cancer."

Similar news for radiation's effect on prostate cancer was also released this week. According to research, patients with advanced stage prostate cancer receiving radiation right after surgery live longer without their cancer returning than patients who do not receiving radiation after surgery.

In the second study, researchers evaluated 473 men with advanced stage prostate cancer. After undergoing prostatectomy, the men were split into two groups. One group was "watched" and one group immediately started receiving radiation. After both five and 10 years, the group receiving radiation had their risk of recurrence reduced by 25 percent. Radiation also decreased the risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body, but doctors say those differences were not statistically significant.

Gregory Swanson, M.D., a radiation oncologist for the Genitourinary Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group (the main sponsor of the study), says, "To see a 25-percent reduction in recurrence of any cancer is considered a major breakthrough. As cancer doctors, we should be quite impressed."