Can radiation therapy be made less onerous? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Women receiving radiation therapy for breast cancer can now have fewer treatments and may also be able to change the interval, a study presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium shows. Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson at Johns Hopkins says a technique called ‘fractionation’ was used in a large number of women.

Nelson: More than 2000 people in a randomized trial, how you fractionate radiation therapy after a lumpectomy. I think it’s fair to say that the ability to plan the fields with all of the new technology that’s available for external beam radiation can be administered more directly and more safely. Then the fractionation, the number of times you need to come to get your treatment can be reduced. There’s a variety of aspects of that are nice. One is in this case itnf was equally effective and it is safe. It also means that the fleet of radiation therapy instruments can be used more efficiently.   :32

Nelson says women who need radiation therapy for breast cancer should ask about fractionation. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.