Family Life

05.21.10 | FL News Team

Radiation was once thought to be a must after breast cancer lumpectomies.  Now a new study says that some older women with early-stage tumors might be able to skip radiation therapy safely.  Researchers took 636 women over age 70 whose cancers respond to the drug Tamoxifen.  All had had lumpectomies.  The women were split into a no-radiation group and a radiation group.  Both groups received Tamoxifen.  The radiation patients were six-percent less likely to get a second tumor over the course of the next decade.  But the survival rate for both groups was the same.  The findings were presented by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.