Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on June 24, 2008
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2008 100(13):910-911; doi:10.1093/jnci/djn231
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© Oxford University Press 2008.
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Less Radiation After Lumpectomy in Breast Cancer: New Results Stir Debate
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Recent findings from two large trials support the idea that early breast cancer patients who have a lumpectomy may not need as much radiation therapy as they would normally receive. The 5-year results from the Standardization of Breast Radiotherapy trials (START A and B) suggest that the total amount of radiation can be safely reduced from the commonly used dose of 50 Gy and that it can be delivered in fewer sessions, or fractions, at a higher dose per fraction.
The less arduous and less costly approach, known as hypofractionation, "seems to offer rates of local–regional tumor relapse and late adverse effects at least as favorable as [those obtained using] the standard schedule," concluded the START investigators, led by John Yarnold, M.D., of Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, England. Reported in The Lancet and Lancet Oncology in March, the findings came out soon after similar 10-year results from a
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