want to learn about a type of breast radiation that you can get in one dose
rather than over four to six weeks we're gonna teach you all about it
if you are gonna have a lumpectomy surgery for breast cancer there's a good
chance you will need radiation therapy to lessen the chance the cancer grows
back in that area of the breast whole breast radiation is still the standard
of care and is given over about a four to six week period of time but IORT
intraoperative radiation therapy is offered at some hospitals and may be an
option for you if you have a very favorable small early stage breast
cancer in this lesson I'm gonna teach you about what intraoperative radiation
therapy is and how it's used for breast cancer I'm going to share with you some
of the potential advantages and also the possible disadvantages and concerns
about IORT I'm also going to share with you some of the qualifying features
about breast cancer they may let you determine whether you are a candidate
for IORT so let's get started what is IORT well intraoperative radiation
therapy is a type of radiation for breast cancer
when someone has a lumpectomy during surgery and this is all planned in
advance with you a radiation oncologist and your breast surgeon but during your
breast cancer lumpectomy the surgeon removes the tumor with a good margin
normal tissue around it and the radiation oncologist comes in and places
a device for about 30 minutes while you're asleep in the operating room and
it radiates the area where the tumor was to kill any cancer cells that might be
there that might grow in the future would call that a recurrence so after
they do the radiation and they close everything up and you're done with
surgery and if everything goes well after they looking under the microscope
and make sure everything's fine it's felt to be a reasonable alternative to
whole breast radiation over four to six weeks I'm next gonna tell you about the
advantages and disadvantages and concerns about IOR t what are the
potential advantages of IORT? well it's fairly obvious that if you have a
surgery and radiation at the same time and you get them both done in one
what a feeling it's good to have so much of your cancer treatment done so quickly
and efficiently so it's potentially a time saver in that you can avoid whole
breast radiation and the time it takes to travel to a radiation Center Monday
through Friday for four to six weeks get undressed have your treatment which
only takes a couple of minutes but you have to do it over such a long period of
time and if you live a distance from a radiation center that time commitment is
very significant we all have busy lives the third potential advantage and a lot
of patients pursue IOR T for their type of radiation rather than whole breast
radiation is that they like the concept that the radiation is given to the area
where the tumor was which is usually if there any cancer cells left behind
that's where they are and just to radiate that area rather
than whole breast radiation which doesn't radiate the entire breast and
the skin and there's some side effects that can come with that generally well
tolerated but a lot of people like that as a potential advantage of IORT what
are the disadvantages of IORT well it is a new technology so as such we're
learning more about it and how effective it is the long term success rate is good
but not yet felt to be as good as whole breast radiation therapy so let me
explain if you have a surgical lumpectomy for an early stage breast
cancer and let's pick a number that the chance of something growing back in that
breast in the area where you had your surgery with whole breast radiation is
6% over the next five to ten years that still considered the standard of
care IORT has had trials not yet out a long period of time to really
calculate what the local recurrence rate is over the long term but the local
recurrence rate is just a couple of percentage points higher than whole
breast radiation doctors debate and argue about it at breast cancer meetings
all the time so it's a very controversial subject but in general IORT has not been deemed to be as effective or equal to whole breast
radiation but there's a small difference and it's really up to you to decide
whether you want to go through and seek the advantages of IOR tea and maybe give
off or give up a little chance higher chance of your breast cancer going back
in that area another potential disadvantage is that
it is an invasive procedure it's added to your surgery and that increases the
chance of you having infection after your surgery versus if you did not have
I owe our team because they're putting a device in your breast for an extended
period of time you can also have a cosmetic deformity in the area the
surgery and radiation those radiation does make some changes in your breast
that doesn't happen all the time but it's always a possibility with any
surgery and a little bit more with this type of radiation so when you look at it
all it's not yet considered standard of care it's not incorporated into the
guidelines for treatment but it is an option and it is approved and if you
feel like the benefits outweigh the risk for you with pursuing IOR tea rather
than whole breast radiation it's your choice
so do I qualify for IORT if you have a very early stage one and a few and
stage two might qualify and not everyone that has a stage one cancer is a
candidate for IORT so small tumor maybe less than two centimeters in size
receptor factors that are very favorable like strongly estrogen receptor-positive
is something to know and definitely her2 receptor negative you do not want to
have this if there's any evidence or suggestion that you have cancer in your
lymph nodes when you present to your surgeon so my advice to you is to only
do this if you have a very very very favorable what we consider a low-risk
cancer which you'll have to find out from your surgeon and radiation
oncologist but beware some radiation oncologists apply this new technology
for just a few that we really feel would benefit the most
and some radiation oncologists and surgeon will apply IORT cancers
they're a little bit more risky and I think that that is something to try to
avoid when you're seeking information about IORT to learn more about
intraoperative radiation therapy for breast cancer visit the breast cancer
school for patients where we teach you everything that you need to know we're
here to help you get the best possible breast cancer care in your community
register on our website to get our list of questions to prepare you for your
next doctor visit