The latest news about breast cancer treatment is encouraging.
On June 4, 2018, several news agencies reported that a federally sponsored study using Oncotype DX indicated that most women with the most common form of early stage breast cancer can now safely skip chemotherapy. This means that as many as 65,000 women a year will be spared the costly, unpleasant, time-consuming, and sometimes debilitating, rigors of the cancer-killing therapy.
Three decades ago chemotherapy was included in nearly every breast cancer treatment. In the last 15 years, however, there were some cases when this exhausting therapy was no longer used. Now, it seems, that with a different kind of plan chemotherapy will no longer be included in the traditional treatment protocol.
Cancer Treatment Centers Continue to Benefit from Research and New Treatment Plans
The latest advanced cancer treatment options continue to change the face of a variety of options for breast and prostrate cancer, as well as others. For instance, proton radiation therapy is a type of radiation that stops at a very specific point in the targeted tissue, as opposed to conventional which radiation continues beyond the tumor. In breast cancer, this treatment means on average no radiation will reach the heart, and on average 50% less radiation will reach the lung when compared with conventional radiation.
With the use of proton beam radiation, a treatment session generally takes 15 to 45 minutes. The actual time spent delivering the protons to the tumor, however, is generally only one or two minutes. This type of treatment is increasing in popularity so much that by the beginning of 2015, more than 30 particle therapy cancer treatment centers, with a total of about 80 treatment rooms, were under construction across the world.
If you or someone you love has had cancer in the past you understand the importance of getting the right kind of treatment. This latest news about breast cancer and the fact that many of the patients will no longer be required to go through radiation is big news. Thanks to advancements in targeted treatments like proton therapy doctors are now able to make sure that they are able to concentrate the treatments that are recommended.