Popular new breast cancer treatment has no data (Reuters)

Vasiliki Kostoula, Greek breast cancer patient is framed by an x-ray of the breast after a radiological examination in a hospital in Athens on 29 October 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Yannis BehrakisBy Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK | 10 December 2010 10 h 37 EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - a new treatment for breast cancer radiation becomes increasingly popular despite the absence of sufficient evidence, at least in Medicare well insured patients U.S. researchers say.

According to claims data, use of therapy, which radiates a part only of the chest instead of standard whole breast radiation after a Lumpectomy, climbed over 10 times for patients between 2001 and 2006.

While the gold standard of clinical trials on the most recent treatment are still missing, two other events coincide with steep increases in its use: approval of a device used to provide radiation in 2002 and 2004 Medicare reimbursement.

"It before the issue of the when we have to adopt a new technology", says the Dr. David j. Sher, an expert in radiation therapy, which was not involved in the new study. "This document shows what it really is made in the absence of evidence."

The National Cancer Institute says that more than 200,000 women will get breast in 2010 and about one-fifth will die of the disease.

After a Lumpectomy, up to 40 percent of women see cancer return, but this number can be reduced to 10 percent by external-beam radiation of the entire breast. Common side effects are swelling and redness.

Unlike the whole breast radiation, which usually takes several weeks to complete, the new partial-breast treatment lasts less than a week.

An example of the so-called brachytherapy approach is MammoSite device marketed by Hologic Massachusetts-based and used on more than 50,000 women so far, according to the company.

It consists of a small balloon is inflated into the cavity left after the tumor is removed. ToolTip then delivers high dose radiation more likely to develop new breast cancer stakeholders.

It, although the idea is promising, Sher said, are not large studies have compared the whole breast radiation to this treatment. He said such a study is under way, but in the meantime, the effectiveness and side effects have increased in the air.

New findings, published in the journal of Clinical Oncology, based on data of nearly 7,000 older women who had radiotherapy after having a breast tumor removed. All have private with Medicare insurance.

Ya-Chen Shih t. from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and his colleagues found that from 2001 to 2006, the use of partial breast radiation only after breast surgery has steadily increased from less than one percent to 10 percent, to the detriment of the whole breast radiation cases.

It is apparent that rich women were more likely to get the new treatment, researchers have discovered, and it is not known if results extend to other women.

In a study comparing the cost-effectiveness of treatments various radiation Sher found MammoSite was unlikely to be profitable for the whole breast radiation. "MammoSite is significantly more expensive," he said.

According to Shih, whole breast radiation therapy costs approximately $13,000 and breast brachytherapy on $204,800.