Breast cancer patients commonly receive radiation therapy as part of their treatment. This treatment may serve as a supplement to breast cancer surgery, or complement breast cancer drug therapies such as chemotherapy. Radiation may be applied in the form of a beam of radiation, or from the accumulation of radioactive particles within the breast tumor. Radiation has a number of affects, both positive and negative, on breast cancer patients.
Cancer Remission and Treatment
The positive effect of radiation on breast cancer is cancer cell death leading to cancer remission. Breast cancer radiation causes irreparable damage to the cancer cell's DNA, and renders the cell unable to survive. Doctors often perform radiation therapy after breast cancer surgery to target and kill any cancer cells missed during the surgical procedure, according to BreastCancer.org. Doctors may irradiate the entire breast and surrounding tissue after surgery. Alternatively, doctors may use more targeted radiation techniques to target regions of known cancer growth within the breast or in surrounding lymph nodes. Overall, radiation therapy allows doctors to more effectively treat breast cancer than individual therapies administered on their own.
Radiation Burns
A negative effect of radiation therapy on the breast are radiation burns sustained due to treatment. A common form of radiation, called external beam radiation therapy, aims a dose of radiation through the overlying breast skin and into the tumor. As a result, the skin overlying the breast cancer also receives a high dose of damaging radiation, which can leave a radiation burn. The skin over the treated breast may become red and itchy, and may swell as fluid builds up around the burn site. In some cases, the skin may peel away due to damage to the outer layers of skin, so patients with radiation burns may develop sores, according to the National Cancer Institute. In general, the effects of radiation treatment on the overlying breast skin last for a few weeks after treatment, then subsides.
Risk of Heart Damage
In some cases, radiation treatment for breast cancer can damage the cells of the heart, leading to heart damage. Early forms of radiation treatment, involving less refined treatment techniques, were linked to heart damage, and women who had undergone radiation therapy for breast cancer had a much higher risk of dying from heart disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. The development of more targeted radiation procedures means that the heart is exposed to less radiation during treatment, although some women may still develop heart damage as a result of radiation therapy for breast cancer; longer-term studies are needed to asses the impact of modern radiation therapy on heart disease. The Institute notes that early detection of breast cancers, and treating the cancer before it spreads outside the breast, can minimize the effects of radiation treatment on the heart.
