Sterotactic Body Radiotherapy/SBRT for Breast Cancer

Despite research demonstrating the effectiveness of both chemotherapy and surgery, there are large number of breast cancer patients who are still in remission following surgery.

Results from a recent clinical trial, no significant association was found between breast symptoms, demographic factors, or other co-morbidities and breast cancer screening behaviour or screening uptake.

We have been unable to identify any strong link between breast cancer and any of the major factors known to increase the risk of breast cancer: smoking, alcohol use, diet, exercise, obesity, or hormone replacement therapy. More research is needed to better understand the complexities of breast cancer and its causes.

Breast cancer usually occurs as either a malignant lump or as a lumpy mass in the breast that is painless. This article focuses on lump mammography--which is the use of mammography to detect breast cancer or to evaluate suspicious areas in the breasts. Once it is found, a biopsy is performed to confirm that it is cancer. The cancer is treated either with surgery for removal of the lump or whole breast, or with tamoxifen for the treatment of estrogen receptor-positive, node-negative breasts. The treatment of choice for node-negative disease is a combination of tamoxifen and/or aromatase inhibitor therapy.

Common treatments for [breast cancer](https://www.withpower.com/clinical-trials/breast-cancer) are surgery, medications, hormonal therapy, radiotherapy, and clinical trials. Surgery is the most common treatment strategy for breast cancer, followed by breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with radiotherapy, and BCS with hormonal therapy. Patients are more likely to be offered chemotherapy after they have been informed and consent for BCS, and postoperative radiotherapy is more common with mastectomy.

The incidence rate of breast cancer in the US, which has been stable over the past two decades, is likely reflective of the increasing incidence of breast cancer in the United States, because of the large increase in both use of the mammogram procedure and the number of women who are screened.

More women with metastatic disease would live longer if they were treated with new and better targeted treatments with hormonal therapy as compared with conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy and are treated with hormonal therapy. The survival rate for breast cancer appears to have improved at least for the women who have a good response to hormone therapy.

In 2008 and 2009, two new drugs were approved by the FDA. They provided better and longer answers to [breast cancer](https://www.withpower.com/clinical-trials/breast-cancer) and gave doctors less time to explore other possibilities. The new drugs were Herceptin (2008) and Erbitux (2009). For the past 11 years, however, there hadn't been any drugs approved to kill the cancer cells that have spread to the lining of the breast. There was no one to target the mutated genes that cause a cancer cell to grow into a solid tumor, and so there was no way to cut off the mutated genes in the body, and destroy the cancer cells that spread to other areas of the body.

A review of our recent published studies (except for this present study) does not provide further information on sbrt. The first published, which was a retrospective review (a study where subjects do not receive treatment according to a certain treatment protocol) of 18 patients with stage I-IIIB breast carcinoma treated with sbrt (12 patients, dose 50 Gy) showed the following conclusions: • This retrospective study shows significant, favorable, long-term outcomes including excellent overall survival and DMF rates after sbrt.

These clinicians will not necessarily advise their patients not to participate in clinical trials. The patients should discuss clinical trials with their health care provider, decide whether the potential benefits of clinical trials exceed the potential risks, and take an informed decision.

All patients should be cautioned of potential physical and psychological toxicity of SBRT, particularly for treating early breast cancer, and with increasing numbers treated with this modality, we should carefully monitor early onset acne, osteopenia (a decline in bone density), and cognitive dysfunction, especially when dosimetry of the irradiated target is close to or below the threshold for subclinical bone damage and for the risk of peripheral paresthesias. We should also closely monitor patients for the development of lymphedema and/or skin changes, especially if the irradiated volume is large and/or if dose delivery is incomplete.