A new statistics reveals that two third of the senior American woman with lumpectomies receive useless radiation therapy
Generally, American woman who suffers from breast cancer treated with surgery. The surgery is carried out along with seven to eight weeks of daily radiation therapies.
Researchers of Penn Medicine along with experts of Duke University carried out the study. The chief goal of the research is to determine the practical outcomes of radiation therapy.
They carefully examined the impact of large randomized trials related to breast cancer of 2004. They evaluated the survival rates of woman who took surgery, radiation and chemotherapy with the woman who merely had surgery and chemotherapy. The data revealed that there is not a considerable difference in the survival rate of woman who went through radiation treatment.
Experts concluded that aged American woman undergo the fatigue, pain and cost of an extremely useless radiation therapy. These radio therapies failed to show any significant results in increasing life expectancy.
Dr. Rachel Blitzblau, main author of the study stated that it is better to skip radiation treatment for old age breast cancer patients. The minor advantages of radio therapy are not equal to the costs and side effects of the therapy. Some of the setbacks of radio therapy are fatigue, skin blisters and nerve damage.
Sadly, a large number of doctors and other health professionals are reluctant to adopt the new professional guidelines.
The report is published in the Journal Cancer.