Anyone know anything about External Partial Breast Irradiation?

I had IDC, but am likely to be one of the few people you meet who had external partial beam radiation - it's part of the same trial that Mammosite is in, but it is getting more attention now, as it has had no company with a financial interest in it, and now people have seen some problems with Mammosite.

I really liked only getting radiation for a week. I waited about 3 months for my mammogram, and I had pretty much had it with cancerland by the time I got to radiation.

The actual time on the table is a little longer, because they have to shoot a number of different angles, so you get radiation specifically on the spot where cancer was. They move you.

You get the same amount of radiation that you would get during regular radiation. But, you are in a trial, that means that there is no long term proof that it works. But I am 4 years out, and still fine. My rad onc has told me that the study results show that properly selected patients are doing as well as patients who do the whole 6 weeks.

Hope this helps

Where is this type of radiation being offered?

I was offered external partial breast irradiation at CPMC in San Francisco.  If I remember correctly, the rad onc said that to date all the indications were that this was as effective as whole breast irradiation but simply because of the shorter time that the partial had been around, he could not say definitively that the two were equally effective.  He reckoned it would be about five years before there were sufficient data to say that without caveats.  Me, I decided to do the whole breast irradiation, but that was because after all the rational weighing of pros and cons, I went with my gut and my gut was driven by a family experience with another (non-breast) cancer.  Also, because I was told that whether partial or whole, I could not do radiation again in that breast if cancer recurred so I figured WTH might as well zonk any stray bugger lurking undisclosed.

Good luck with your decision, and I hope all goes well for you however you decide.

Caroline

I'm in Tucson, AZ.  What was your experience your experience with the EPBI?  Was it called "cyberknife"?  Was there any pain or cosmetic issues?  I had a lumpectomy for DCIS intermediate grade and apparently have some close margins.  I am going back in a couple of days to see my surgeon and expect that she will recommend either a reexcision, radiation therapy or both, so I want to be ready to understand all the possibilities of treatment.