Women with certain types of early-stage breast cancer now have a new treatment option available with Radiation Oncology Associates. Our team provides radiotherapy using the ZEISS INTRABEAM intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) system.

This may be an excellent therapy option for women having breast-conserving surgery, also known as a lumpectomy. The clinically documented radiotherapy delivers a single fraction of radiotherapy in 20-30 minutes during the time of lumpectomy. Other forms of radiation therapy can require five to six weeks of treatment.

With this new less-invasive treatment, the small spherical tip of a miniaturized radiation device is inserted into lumpectomy incision. The therapy is delivered while the patient is still asleep from the lumpectomy. No additional surgery is needed, and both treatment time and radiation exposure are reduced. This can contribute significantly to helping patients get back to their lives more quickly.

Localizing the radiation inside the breast is effective because this is where cancer is most likely to recur. The international TARGIT research group has been investigating this new method of delivering radiotherapy for breast cancer in which the treatment zcan be delivered at the time of surgical lumpectomy since 1988. The results of the trial show the overall number of recurrences of the cancer was very low.

Michael Alvarado, MD, a member of TARGIT-A International Steering Committee and one of the principle investigators at the University of California, San Francisco, said, “Radiotherapy delivered at the time of surgery is an exciting advancement. By delivering radiation intraoperatively, primarily the tumor bed is targeted, therefore patients benefit from less ‘scatter radiation’ to the lungs and heart, and fewer cosmetic problems with the breast.”