Three instead of five weeks of radiation therapy for all breast cancer patients: study presented yesterday at an Oncology conference paves the way for ‘decaling the treatment cliff’.

According to organizers of Esmo, the European Society of Medical Oncology’s annual research meeting in Barcelona this year, these results may soon be game-changing for patient care.

OR study phase 3 which was evaluated over 5 years in 1,265 patients and compared the results of standard 5 weeks of radiation therapy with the new regimen that includes fewer sessions, three weeks, combined with the administration of increased doses.

All of these women had breast cancer with lymph node infiltrationmeaning the tumor was not confined, but had spread to the lymph nodes.

One group of study patients received little stronger doses in each sessionon a total of fewer sessions.

“Based on previous studies, we knew that the effectiveness of shorter radiation therapy was the same in cases of ‘localized’ breast cancer, but for women with lymph node infiltration, there was nothing until now to show that we could reduce the number of sessions. “, explains Sofia Rivera, radiation oncologist, director at the French Institute Gustave-Roussy, who presented the study.

To make it possible reducing sessions to three weeksthe radiation dose was slightly increased each time.

“When we treat the breast but also the lymph nodes, we target much larger tumors, which include healthy tissues such as the lung, the heart, the esophagus,” explains Sofia Rivera. Consequently, with a stronger dose, there was concern about more serious side effects associated with the treatment.

The study results dispelled those concerns: also, “we have an overall survival rate, recurrence-free survival and metastasis-free survival that are better” with this fewer-session/higher-dose treatment, the oncologist says.

Reducing the number of sessions will reduce the number of trips to and from the treatment center and this is gain in quality of lifeaccording to the oncologist. Other advantages, the reduction of the waiting list after the release of places in the radiation therapy devices and the saving of human resources.

Charlotte Coles, an oncologist and professor at the University of Cambridge, hailed a “really important” study, which should lead to easing “the burden on patients” and “reduce the costs of the care delivery system”.

The study is part of the corpus of research moving in the same direction.

A meta-analysis published last week in the British Medical Review (BMJ) pooling trial findings on more than 20,000 patients concluded that giving higher doses per radiotherapy session over a shorter period of time significantly reduces the risk of side effects and improves quality of life. .

For breast cancer specifically, studies initially showed that three weeks of radiation therapy (15 sessions) gives just as good results as five weeks (25 sessions). Subsequently, other studies have shown that 5 sessions have just as good results as 25 or 15.

The next phase will test the regimen of five sessions per week for breast cancer with lymph node infiltration. Studies are underway, but it will take at least five years for the first results.