Radiation therapy is a common treatment for many forms of breast cancer, and can improve the efficacy of other cancer therapies such as breast cancer surgery. Cells exposed to radiation undergo massive cellular damage--they are unable to divide and ultimately die. Radiation therapy aims to use a high dose of radiation to severely damage breast cancer cells, leading to cancer cell death and tumor shrinkage. Breast cancer patients can choose from a number of radiation procedures to treat their cancer.
External Beam Radiation Therapy
The most common type of radiation treatment for breast cancer is external beam radiation therapy, according to San Diego State University. External beam radiation makes use of X-rays to damage and kill breast cancer cells. During radiation treatment, the woman lies on her back while doctors aim a dose of radiation into the breast. The radiation commonly affects cells throughout the whole breast, and may also target cells within the chest or axillary lymph nodes surrounding the breast that may contain cancer. External beam radiation treatment can lead to a number of side effects, including sunburn-like symptoms on the skin over the breast, stiffness of the skin after treatment as well as nausea.
Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy
Another type of radiation treatment for breast cancer is intensity modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT. IMRT uses imaging techniques that allow doctors to focus radiation into the breast tumor, exposing cancer cells to a very high focused dose of radiation while leaving surrounding tissue relatively unaffected. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center explains that doctors performing IMRT first use medical imaging to create a three-dimensional view of the affected breast. The doctors use computers to pinpoint sites within the breast that need radiation treatment, then apply a focused dose of radiation to the tumor. Since this imaging allows doctors to view the size and shape of the breast tumor, they can apply radiation to all points within the tumor to very effectively kill the tumor cells. The Cancer Center explains that this increased focus of radiation reduces the risk of side effects in normal tissue from 10 to 2 percent, ultimately causing fewer side effects than other forms of treatment.
Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy is a technologically advanced radiation treatment that allows doctors to irradiate the tumor from inside the breast. The University of Wisconsin explains that brachytherapy involves placing a number of small radioactive seeds inside the breast tissue, focussed on areas around the tumor that are prone to cancer recurrence. Once the radioactive seeds are situated within the tumor, they release high doses of radiation to their immediate surroundings, damaging and killing cancer cells around the site of the original breast tumor. Brachytherapy allows doctors to essential apply radiation therapy from the inside out and apply higher doses of radiation therapy to the tumor. As a result, patients undergoing brachytherapy for breast cancer can expect relatively short treatment lengths and fewer doctor visits for radiation.
