Hunter researchers have contributed to a landmark global study proving the benefits of lymph node radiation in long-term breast cancer control.
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The clinical trial – conducted at Newcastle’s Calvary Mater Hospital and led by oncologists in Australia, Canada and the United States – shows that radiation treatment of the lymph nodes in addition to breast cancer surgery can prolong the time women remain cancer-free.
As part of the trial, researchers monitored 1832 women with breast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes.
A decade later, 82 per cent of the women who received radiation therapy to the breast and lymph nodes were free of cancer, compared to 77 per cent who received radiation to the breast only.
The trail was co-ordinated by the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group in Australia and the findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Australian women, and most women who have localised surgery to remove the cancer receive radiation to the breast after surgery,” the trial’s international co-chairwoman Associate Professor Boon Chua said.
“This large international trial has shown that lymph node radiation not only reduced the likelihood of cancer coming back in the lymph nodes 10 years later, it also decreased the risk of cancer coming back in the other parts of the body, such as the liver and lungs.”