Radiotherapy not always needed for early breast cancer

According to a new research, it has been found that older women with early-stage breast cancer may not need radiotherapy after undergoing surgery. The researchers said that women, 55 or older with stage one breast cancer displaying a specific biomarker pattern identifying the luminal A subtype can be effectively treated with just surgery and endocrine therapy. This was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

The research team, tracked 501 patients with luminal A breast cancer for five years post-surgery and found the recurrence of cancer in the breast was just 2.3 percent without radiotherapy.

These findings were an excitement because a certain group of patients were identified who can avoid radiotherapy and its associated side effects and potentially change for the better medical practice around the treatment of breast cancer.

Patients with early-stage breast cancer typically undergo radiotherapy courses of three to five weeks to reduce the risk of their cancer recurring. They mentioned that the overall risk of cancer recurrence following breast-conserving surgery has decreased in recent years thanks to regular mammogram screening, improved surgical techniques and better systemic treatments.