Internal radiation system cuts breast cancer treatment time

June 9th, 2008 at 06:06pm Deborah Austin

Poplar Grove resident Paula Irwin, 56, found out at a May 8 lumpectomy that she had early-stage malignant tumors in both her breasts. 

Twelve days later she was finished with radiation treatment, thanks to the MammoSite Radiation Therapy System.

Rather than a typical six-week regimen of external beam radiation used after a lumpectomy, MammoSite uses a five-day radiation treatment that is delivered from the inside of the cavity from which the tumor was removed.  The radiation comes from a computer-controlled High Dose Rate (HDR) machine, and goes through a catheter attached to a small balloon inside that cavity in the breast. Because it is targeted and works from the inside, a higher daily dose of radiation can be used for a shorter period of time.  The MammoSite system got FDA clearance in 2002.

OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center has had the MammoSite system since May 2005, and SwedishAmerican Health System since April 2007.  Irwin received her MammoSite treatments at SwedishAmerican.  Her last treatment was about three weeks ago.

“Within a matter of 12 days I was done with surgery and radiation all at once,” Irwin said. “It was time-efficient, which was really good for me. Plus, the external radiation tends to burn you; I’m very fair-skinned and burn easily.”

Temporary balloons with catheters are inserted at the time of the lumpectomy, after the surgeon has determined that that cancer has not spread and there is enough tissue around the cavity, said SwedishAmerican Manager of Radiation Oncology Kathy Stukenberg. When the MammoSite treatment is ready to start, the temporary balloons and catheters are removed and the MammoSite ones installed, she said.

“It was a little painful having them taken out and put back in, but nothing unbearable,” Irwin said.

The MammoSite treatments usually are done in seven-to-10-minute increments twice a day for five days, Stukenberg said. Generally each day’s treatments are spaced 5 to 6 hours apart, she said.

The procedure can only be used on people with early-stage cancer which has not spread beyond the margins of the lump, Stukenberg said. And it’s normally used for women age 45 and older, because breast cancer in younger women tends to be a more aggressive type. “If any lumph nodes are positive, you can’t have it done. And if you’re small breasted you can’t have it done because there is not enough surface tissue.”

To find out more about the MammoSite Radiation Therapy System, you can go to http://www.mammosite.com.

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