Post-surgery radiotherapy ‘beneficial for breast cancer patients’

Breast cancer patients aged over 65 who receive radiotherapy after undergoing breast-conserving surgery could be at a lower risk of suffering recurrences.

New research claims that over-65s are 3.5 times more likely to experience new tumours forming if they are not given radiation treatment following surgery.

The authors of the study, published today in Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society, say that these statistics for women with early stage breast cancer hold even when potential hormone treatments are factored in.

But despite their findings, women aged over 65 are conversely less likely to receive radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery than younger patients.

Over the course of their ten-year investigation, researchers from the Boston University Medical Centre evaluated 1,837 women with early stage breast cancer and their subsequent treatments.

In conclusion, the authors recommend that “mastectomy or breast conserving surgery with radiation therapy… be considered standard therapy in women of all ages and comorbidities [additional diseases], excepting those with very limited life expectancies”.

Women aged 65 and above are more susceptible to early stage breast cancer than any other demographic.