Radiotherapy 'should be standard' after breast cancer ops

Patients over the age of 65 who are given radiotherapy after breast cancer surgery could be at a lower risk of developing new tumours.

At present, women over the age of 65 are less likely to receive radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery than younger patients.

However, new research, published today in the journal Cancer, suggests that over-65s are 3.5 times more likely to suffer a recurrence of breast cancer if they do not receive radiation treatment following breast-conserving surgery.

The authors write that "mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery with radiation therapy... [should] be considered standard therapy in women of all ages and comorbidities [additional diseases], excepting those with very limited life expectancies".

The study was conducted by researchers at the Boston University Medical Centre over a ten-year period and involved 1,837 women suffering from early-stage breast cancer.

Data obtained from the patients also revealed that the statistics still hold when potential hormone treatments are factored in.

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