New Radiation Treatment for Breast Cancer Patients at Mayo Clinic

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Media Contact:
Lynn Closway
Mayo Clinic
480-301-4222
closway.lynn@mayo.edu

For Immediate Release - February 10, 2004

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Patients undergoing surgery for early stage breast cancers at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix can now receive one of the world's most advanced, effective and rare forms of cancer-fighting radiation therapy. Intraoperative Electron Radiation (IOERT) has been used at Mayo Clinic since Jan. 2002, for locally advanced gastrointestinal (colorectal, pancreas, esophagus, stomach, biliary), gynecologic and renal cancers and sarcomas.

The 100th IOERT surgery was recently performed, this time in a surgery for breast cancer, allowing the patient to have IOERT during her lumpectomy, and decreasing the amount of external radiation needed post-operatively. This is part of a study to evaluate its use in early stage breast cancer surgery that began in Nov. 2002.

Mayo Clinic Hospital has one of only nine FDA-approved mobile IOERT machines (called the Mobetron) in the world, and the only medical center in the Southwest with this treatment option. The Mobetron can be brought directly to the patient's operating room at the time of surgery. Patients treated with this device receive a powerful, concentrated beam of electron radiation delivered directly to cancerous tumors while they are exposed during surgery. In the case of breast cancer surgery, this adds only about 20 minutes to the time of the surgery.

"IOERT has been successful for patients with locally advanced cancers, and we're pleased that we now can use it for early stage breast cancer treatment," says Leonard L. Gunderson, M.D., head of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. "IOERT maximizes the dose of radiation given to the tumor while minimizing the amount of radiation damage to surrounding tissues. In many cases, especially in more locally advanced or recurrent forms of gastrointestinal and gynecologic surgeries, our research has shown improved local tumor control and survival rates."

The IOERT study for breast cancer at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale is evaluating the patient's tolerance to receiving IOERT during surgery followed by external radiation. Although the study of using it for breast cancer surgery is still in its preliminary stages, of 28 patients treated thus far, none have reported serious side effects or increased recovery time following surgery. The standard of care following breast cancer surgery is typically six weeks of external radiation. In the first phase of the IOERT study, that has been shortened to four weeks plus four days. The next phase of the IOERT study will be looking at shortening the external course of radiation even further, perhaps down to three weeks plus one day. "IOERT allows us to provide more focalized treatment for breast cancer and to cut the radiation treatment time," says William Wong, M.D., radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic who is leading the study. "This approach is more convenient for our patients and reduces the total time and cost of treatment. Most importantly, though, it also allows us to be more accurate because we are right there radiating the tumor itself. We're able to focus more on the tumor and less on the surrounding tissue."

For information about participating in the IOERT breast cancer study, call the Mayo Clinic Breast Clinic at (480) 301-6999.

Mayo Clinic is a private group practice of medicine dedicated to providing diagnosis and treatment of patient illnesses through a systematic focus on individual patient needs. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 205-bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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