IN A breakthrough for treatment of breast cancer, British researchers have developed a new technique which reduces radiation therapy to just a single dose for people suffering from the disease.
Researchers led by Indian-born breast surgeon and oncologist Jayant Sharad Vaidya, of University College London, developed the targeted radiotherapy to deliver a specific area of the breast to treat the disease during surgery.
Dr Vaidya, who studied medicine at Goa Medical College, developed the concept, tools and the surgical operative procedure to give targeted radiotherapy to the tissues immediately around a breast cancer, after it is surgically removed. The technique, called Targeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy (Targit), cuts the time patient have to spend in hospital and they don’t have to face post-operation radiotherapy. “The results change the way of thinking about breast cancer. They suggest that in selected patients the whole breast does not need to be treated and that the radiation dose can be much lower. The new treatment ... saves time, money and breasts,” Dr Vaidya, who was the chief investigator on the trial, said.
The new technique will help make savings of about £15 million in the UK, the researchers predicted in their study. The procedure has been used in over 2,000 women worldwide and appears to have achieved more than 98 per cent success, according to a study published in the Lancet.
“I think the reason why it works so well is because of the precision of the treatment. It eradicates the very highest risk area — the part of the breast from which the tumour was removed,” Professor Jeffrey Tobias of University College London Hospitals NHS Trust said.