Chemo plus radiation improve breast cancer outcome

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Following surgery, treatment with chemotherapy and radiation at the same time, rather than at different times, seems to improve the odds that a breast cancer won't return, according to a report in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics.

Dr. Bruce Haffty, of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues studied 535 women with breast cancer who underwent lumpectomy, plus radiation and chemotherapy at a major medical center. Chemotherapy and radiation were administered concurrently or in various sequences.

The overall survival rate at 10 years was 78 percent, and 75 percent of the women had no evidence of cancer in distant organs.

Despite experiencing more side effects, 92 percent of patients who received concurrent radiation and chemotherapy showed no signs that their cancer had returned. When radiation and chemotherapy were given at different times, the percentage was significantly lower, 83 percent.

The researchers note that although there have been concerns about more side effects with simultaneous treatment, the approach had acceptable cosmetic results, severity of side effects, and long-term complication rates.

Still, because outcomes are generally good with sequential therapy, the researchers do not currently recommend the use of concomitant therapy outside of clinical studies.

"The challenge over the next few years," Haffty points out, "is to identify those patients who would best benefit from this strategy." This, he concluded, can best be accomplished by forward-looking) clinical trials.

SOURCE: International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, December 1, 2006.