SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For decades, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recommended consideration for no radiation therapy for women over the age of 70, believing that the patient’s natural life expectancy was shorter than the chance the cancer would recur in 5 or 10 years.1 While the governing body has recently revised these guidelines, potential side effects – such as skin rashes and blistering or fear the treatment will exacerbate existing comorbidities such as heart disease and emphysema – continue to concern many in the oncology community who still utilize External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) for older patients.2
Today, National Senior Citizens Day, the TARGIT Collaborative Group (TCG) – a national cancer advocacy organization of doctors and scientists working to improve cancer patient care – is emphasizing to providers that they have another option besides the difficult decision between the secondary risks that come with daily external radiation or no radiation at all. TARGIT Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (TARGIT-IORT) is a single dose of targeted radiation delivered from inside the breast while the patient remains asleep immediately following the removal of the tumor. The TARGIT-A international clinical trial compared TARGIT-IORT to EBRT, and long-term data consistently demonstrated no difference in local and distant breast cancer control, breast preservation, and breast cancer mortality.3
“For years, oncologists have faced a dilemma when treating breast cancer in patients over a certain age: ‘Should I put this lady through a treatment that could cause toxicity, or gamble that she’ll pass away from other factors before recurrence?’,” said William Small Jr., MD, FACRO, FACR, FASTRO Radiation Oncologist and TCG board member. “IORT is just as effective as whole breast radiation without many of the side effects that used to be associated with treating the elderly community. It is often the perfect treatment for most patients with stage one or two breast cancer, but especially those over the age of 70.”
The current average life expectancy for women in the United States is over 81-years-old. For decades following retirement, they are living longer, healthier lives, trading pinochle for pickleball, and crosswords for CrossFit. The NCCN now advises those treating older adults to define them “based on functional status rather than chronologic age… Advanced age alone should not be the only criterion to preclude effective treatment that could improve quality of life (QOL) or lead to survival benefit in older patients.”4
“These women are living the best years of their lives and they don’t want to spend them tethered to an EBRT system when they’d rather be enjoying their grandchildren, playing golf, or traveling the world,” said Dr. Kathleen Minnick, MD at Florida Breast Care, a part of the GenesisCare network in West Palm Beach, FL. “The medical community needs to support the concept of helping a person live every moment she has left. It’s our job to keep our patients here and active with a great quality of life.”
For many women, turning 65 or 70 also does not necessarily mean hanging up their business attire. “While a good portion of older women are enjoying retirement, many are still working professionals,” continues Dr. Small. “Often they are in the primes of their careers and contributing to their industries, despite what the number on their birth certificate says. IORT allows them to treat their breast cancer and continue their lives virtually uninterrupted, instead of working their busy schedules around visits to the radiotherapist and the side effects that go with it.”
EBRT involves treating the entire breast from the outside and although the radiation therapy is directed to the breast rather than the surrounding tissues, the proximity of the heart, lungs and skin limit the dose of radiation that can be given at any one time. This leads to a prolonged treatment course of external beam radiotherapy following surgery. The TARGIT-IORT treatment administers the radiation dose from inside the breast precisely where it is needed, allowing the radiation oncologist to deliver a much higher dose at one time. TARGIT-IORT treats a small area around the tumor bed, and limits unnecessary radiation to vital adjacent organs.
The effectiveness of TARGIT-IORT was investigated in an international study called the TARGIT-A Trial, in which the Intrabeam® System from ZEISS was used. Following lumpectomy, the randomized clinical trial compared risk-adapted partial breast single dose targeted intraoperative radiotherapy to three to six weeks of post-operative whole breast radiotherapy. Long term follow-up of 2,298 patients in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, and Australia demonstrated no difference in the long-term survival without local recurrence; survival without a mastectomy; and survival without distant metastatic disease. In addition, there were 41% fewer deaths from other causes (such as cardiovascular causes and other cancers).3
To learn more about this treatment, the TARGIT-A trial, or to find a TARGIT-IORT center, please visit the consumer education website www.targetbreastcancer.org.
ABOUT TCG
The TARGIT Collaborative Group (TCG) is a national organization of radiation oncologists, cancer surgeons, physicists, and other experts in intraoperative radiotherapy working collaboratively to improve cancer patient care through education, patient advocacy, mentorship, and collaborative research.
REFERENCES
- National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Breast Cancer (Version 5.2020), July 15, 2020
https://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/breast.pdf - “Radiation for Breast Cancer,” American Cancer Society, September 18, 2019
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer/treatment/radiation-for-breast-cancer.html - “Long term survival and local control outcomes from single dose targeted intraoperative radiotherapy during lumpectomy (TARGIT-IORT) for early breast cancer: TARGIT-A randomized clinical trial,” BMJ, August 19, 2020
https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m2836.full.pdf - National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Older Adult Oncology (Version 1.2021), January 2021
https://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/senior.pdf
Media Contact:
Drew Avril
drew@coactivepr.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/86bb94f1-22c7-4a7c-8e5d-004e0134a7ad
