One treatment option for patients undergoing breast conservation therapy is partial breast irradiation, also known as limited-field radiation therapy. The most widely practiced method of partial breast irradiation is breast brachytherapy.

Brachytherapy treats the breast using a radiation source that is placed inside the body. This has four important advantages:

• Radiation is delivered from inside the breast directly to the area where cancer is most likely to recur.
• This limits the amount of radiation to healthy tissue, thereby reducing the potential for side effects.
• The therapy can be completed in 5 days. 1
• Radiation therapy can be completed before beginning chemotherapy (if prescribed).

Clinical studies of patients treated with breast brachytherapy have demonstrated low local recurrence rates. The most recently published study from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute documents a local recurrence rate of 1.0% at five-years follow-up. This rate was similar to that seen in a group of patients treated with external beam radiation. 1

Methods of Breast Brachytherapy

Breast brachytherapy can be delivered in one of two ways:

Multi-catheter brachytherapy
For many years, brachytherapy has been provided to breast cancer patients by implanting multiple (up to 30) catheters (tubes) in the breast. After placement, a radioactive seed is delivered into each catheter to treat the target area. The seed is delivered into each catheter twice a day (morning session and afternoon session), typically for 5 days. The total treatment time for each session is approximately 20 minutes. When treatment is complete, the catheters are removed from the breast.

Balloon catheter brachytherapy
This is one of the latest advances in the treatment of breast cancer and is currently the most widely practiced method of brachytherapy. For additional information please click here.

1 Vicini, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003.