Oncologists Recommend Less Radiation for Elderly Women with Early Breast Cancer

In a healthcare environment where the costs of patient treatment are increasingly considered against possible benefit, a new study has found that US radiation oncologists are using fewer or less-aggressive radiation procedures on older women with early-stage breast cancer.

The findings were presented at the 56th annual conference of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in San Francisco (CA, USA), held September 14–17, 2014. The research, using a US database of more than 100,000 women treated during the last 10 years, found that currently, radiation oncologists in the United States are less prone to use radiotherapy in women older than 70 with early-stage, estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer and that when they do, treatment is appropriately less-intensive.

This follows a randomized trial showing low rates of recurrence in women who do not receive radiotherapy after lumpectomy, provided they undergo endocrine therapy. This corroborates that radiation oncologists are responding to an increasing incentive to keep medical practices current and cost-effective, according to first author Charles Rutter, MD, a radiation oncology resident in Yale University’s School of Medicine (New Haven, CT, USA).

“In light of the current environment surrounding the cost of healthcare—with an intense focus on costs—only treatments with meaningful benefit should be delivered,” Dr. Rutter said. “In the past, radiation oncology, in particular, has been criticized for its expensive interventions. It is reassuring that radiation oncologists are successfully balancing patients’ needs with the cost of providing healthcare.”

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Yale University’s School of Medicine