An accelerated course of radiation therapy does not increase complications for patients who undergo breast reconstruction following a mastectomy, new research shows. Findings of the large, Phase III RT CHARM trial (Alliance A221505) were presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting . While radiation therapy following mastectomy to remove breast cancer is known to improve survival rates for certain patients who are at higher risk of recurrence, RT CHARM is the first multi-institutional international study to show that a shorter course of post-mastectomy radiation, combined with breast reconstruction , is safe and effective.
Cutting treatment time nearly in half—from 25 to 16 treatment sessions—could make post-mastectomy radiation a more accessible option for patients. "Over the past 10 years, we've tried to move all patients who need breast radiation to a shorter, more convenient schedule," said Matthew M. Poppe, MD, FASTRO, the principal investigator of the trial and a professor of radiation oncology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
"But patients after mastectomy who were planning breast reconstruction were the one group where we didn't have sufficient data to support shorter courses. Now, the results of this trial show we can safely reduce treatment time for these patients to three weeks, without compromising their reconstruction." Breast cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer for women in the U.
S. About 40% o.