Saint John’s Offers New Treatment for Early-Stage Breast Cancer
MammoSite Radiation Therapy System (RTS) is an alternative for women who’ve been
treated for early-stage breast cancer. The procedure is now offered in Anderson
through Saint John’s Cancer Center.
The main benefit of the new treatment is its speed. Post-lumpectomy radiation
is completed in only five days with MammoSite RTS -- a fraction of the seven
weeks required for traditional Whole-Breast External Beam Radiation (WBXRT). MammoSite
patients have more freedom to get back to their jobs and return to life as
normal after a lumpectomy.
“It’s a good, viable option for patients that meet specific criteria,” said Dr.
Darrel Ross, Radiation Oncologist at Saint John's Cancer Center. “The first
MammoSite procedure at Saint John’s has gone exceedingly well.”
Dr. Khalil Wakim performed the first MammoSite surgery at Saint John’s. “I have
had to do a number of mastectomies in the past on women who were good candidates
for lumpectomies,” Wakim says. Those women could not follow up the lumpectomy
with seven weeks of recommended radiation. “With the availability of the
MammoSite, those patients would be likely to consider that treatment which cuts
down the radiation time to one week”
How MammoSite is administered
After undergoing a lumpectomy, a patient has two options to complete the
recommended radiation therapy. She can treat the cancer from outside the skin’s
surface by opting for external beam radiation. Or, she can choose a form of
Brachytherapy, a radiation treatment that is administered from inside the
breast.
MammoSite is the most popular form of Brachytherapy -- a radiation treatment
applied inside the cavity where a cancerous lump was removed. By inserting a
thin catheter with a small balloon attached into the cavity, doctors can target
the area where cancer is most likely to reappear. The special balloon is
inflated and a small radioactive seed travels through the catheter from an
electronic device. It enters the balloon, now inflated within the breast
cavity. The seed is removed after about 10 minutes and the balloon is deflated,
but the catheter remains in the patient’s breast until the final treatment.
The full MammoSite therapy requires two sessions a day for five days, after
which the catheter and balloon are removed and the patient can cover up the tiny
hole with a bandage.
MammoSite benefits
MammoSite therapy is less invasive than a full mastectomy and offers desirable
cosmetic results in 88 percent of cases studied. Side effects are low, and can
include redness, bruising, breast pain, and/or drainage from the treatment site.
In addition to the five-day treatment time, it has other advantages over the
traditional seven-week external beam radiation. MammoSite therapy targets the
area where cancer is most likely to reoccur and preserves healthy breast tissue.
This targeted radiation limits overall side effects encountered with external
beam radiation, which can include fatigue, a drop in white blood cells, swelling
or heaviness in the breast, or a loss of appetite. It is possible for these side
effects to last from 6 to 12 months, while side effects of MammoSite therapy
usually last only a short time.
Clinical studies of patients treated with MammoSite and other types of
Brachytherapy show low local recurrence rates similar to external beam radiation
-- only 1% recurrence after five years, according to a study by the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute. If cancer reappears, it will occur in the
original tumor site 80 percent of the time, making localized treatments like
MammoSite a great option.
For more information on MammoSite treatment at Saint John’s, call the Health
Resource Line at 642-3301.
