Radiation therapy for breast cancer

Mayo Clinic's approach

At Mayo Clinic, healthcare professionals who specialize in breast cancer work together to develop a treatment plan tailored to you. Radiation therapy is coordinated with breast surgery, medical oncology, and when needed, plastic and reconstructive surgery. This helps ensure that each part of treatment is given in the right order and at the right time.

The goal is to treat the cancer effectively while also considering side effects, breast appearance, heart and lung health, quality of life, and survivorship.

Your Mayo Clinic care team

Your care team is led by a radiation oncologist with extensive training in using radiation to treat cancer. Mayo Clinic radiation oncologists who treat breast cancer devote a substantial part of their practice to this disease.

Your radiation oncologist works with medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiation therapists, nurses, breast surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, and plastic and reconstructive surgeons. Together, they review the cancer diagnosis, surgery, imaging, pathology results and other treatments.

This coordination is especially important when decisions involve the timing of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and breast reconstruction.

The team also evaluates whether treatment can be safely streamlined using shorter radiation schedules. For some patients, this may allow completion of radiation therapy in as little as one week while maintaining effectiveness.

Personalized breast cancer treatment

Your treatment plan is based on the stage and features of the cancer, the type of surgery you had, whether lymph nodes need treatment, your anatomy, your overall health and what matters to you.

Treatment options may include:

• Whole-breast radiation therapy.
• Partial-breast irradiation, including short-course treatment for select patients.
• Radiation to the chest wall and nearby lymph nodes.
• Brachytherapy.
• Five-day, 15-day or longer treatment schedules.
• Proton therapy for select people when reducing radiation exposure to the heart, lungs or nearby healthy tissues is especially important.
• Clinical trials and investigational treatments.

The shortest or newest treatment is not always the best choice for every person. Your care team recommends the approach that best balances cancer control, side effects, long-term outcomes and the effect of treatment on daily life.

Innovative techniques

Mayo Clinic offers advanced radiation therapy technology and techniques. Your care team recommends them when they may provide a meaningful benefit.

• Short-course radiation therapy. Mayo Clinic has helped advance the use of shorter radiation schedules for breast cancer. For select people with early-stage breast cancer, radiation can be completed in five treatments over one week rather than a traditional three-week schedule. These shorter treatment courses are supported by long-term clinical trial data and can reduce the number of treatment visits while maintaining excellent cancer control and cosmetic outcomes.
• Protecting healthy tissue. Treatment planning may include face-up or face-down positioning, carefully shaped radiation beams, image guidance, and deep-inspiration breath hold. For people with left-sided breast cancer, holding a deep breath can move the heart farther from the treatment area.
• Using proton therapy. Proton beams stop after reaching the treatment area. For select people, this may reduce radiation exposure to the heart, lungs or other nearby tissue compared with some X-ray treatment plans.
• Planning around reconstruction. Radiation can be given after breast reconstruction and to people with breast implants. Radiation oncologists and reconstructive surgeons work together because radiation may affect healing, firmness, breast shape and symmetry.

Specialized care for complex disease

Mayo Clinic teams care for a large and varied population of people with breast cancer, including those with complex disease and those referred after receiving care elsewhere. The team can review previous imaging, pathology results and treatment records when developing the radiation plan.

Mayo Clinic also invests in research and emerging radiation technologies. Areas of study include shorter treatment schedules, partial-breast irradiation, proton therapy, magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia, minibeam radiation therapy and heavy-particle therapy. Clinical trials may be available for select people.

Expertise and rankings

Every year Mayo Clinic radiation oncology teams treat thousands of people with breast cancer. These teams help people with all types of breast cancer.

Mayo Clinic offers the latest in advanced radiation technologies and techniques. Research suggests that people who undergo radiation therapy for breast cancer at facilities that use advanced techniques may have less radiation exposure to normal tissues, such as the heart, than do those treated at medical centers that don't offer these advances. Studies show that lowering the radiation dose to the heart reduces the risk of heart disease in the years after treatment.

Nationally recognized expertise

Mayo Clinic is recognized for high-quality breast cancer care and research by national organizations.

• Mayo Clinic is part of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) and NRG Oncology, which are international groups of scientists who work together to conduct clinical trials and reduce the impact of cancer.
• Mayo Clinic is one of a select group of medical centers in the United States to be recognized as a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) for breast cancer research, funded by the National Cancer Institute. To earn a highly competitive SPORE grant, institutions must demonstrate a high degree of collaboration between first-rate scientists and clinicians and show excellence in translational research projects.

Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center meets the strict standards for a U.S. National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer center. These standards recognize scientific excellence and a multispecialty approach focused on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for cancer by U.S. News & World Report.

Locations, travel and lodging

Mayo Clinic has major campuses in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; Jacksonville, Florida; and Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic Health System has dozens of locations in several states.

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Costs and insurance

Mayo Clinic works with hundreds of insurance companies and is an in-network provider for millions of people.

In most cases, Mayo Clinic doesn't require a physician referral. Some insurers require referrals or may have additional requirements for certain medical care. All appointments are prioritized on the basis of medical need.

Learn more about appointments at Mayo Clinic.

Please contact your insurance company to verify medical coverage and to obtain any needed authorization prior to your visit. Often, your insurer's customer service number is printed on the back of your insurance card.

Clinical trials

Explore Mayo Clinic studies of tests and procedures to help prevent, detect, treat or manage conditions.