New Treatment Could Help Avoid Need For Surgery

A breakthrough therapy now at the University of Cincinnati could help women avoid surgery to treat breast cancer.
 
Local 12's Liz Bonis explains how it works in today's Medical Edge.

Nancy Goldberg is the picture of good health now. She works out five days a week. A little more than year ago, however...

Nancy Goldberg, Cancer Survivor: "They discovered there was something in my breast, a little lump, they couldn't quite see it."

Eventually, a mastectomy or surgery to remove her breast, due to cancer, was recommended. That is until she met with Doctor Ruth Lavigne:

"And she sat there and looked at me and said, if you were my mother I would not have a mastectomy. It was such a wonderful feeling that somebody cared about me and I had a difficult decision to make."

Doctor Lavigne discovered Goldberg was a candidate for an alternative breakthrough treatment. And this breakthrough allowed her to avoid the need for that total mastectomy and surgery, it's pretty remarkable. It's a type of radiation therapy that's performed in just about a week. Twice a day, for five days, Lavine's team used a tomotherapy machine to provide what's called accelerated partial breast irradiation. It hits only in a deep helic or circle below the skin. Dr.

Ruth Lavigne, University of Cincinnati: "The radiation therapy is of a high enough energy that it will actually penetrate a centimeter and a half before it hits it's maximum potential. So, as long as you are treating something that's fairly deep within the breast tissue, you won't irritate the skin."

For Nancy Goldberg, this high tech breakthrough means one thing.

"I'll have a long and full life."

Doctors at UC say they have not seen higher recurrence rates of breast cancer with this therapy, compared to traditional radiation.