Dr. White on Omitting Radiation in Breast Cancer

Julia White, MD, professor of Radiation Oncology, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the omission of radiation therapy for patients with breast cancer.

Omitting radiation in this space requires finding a population of patients that has a low enough overall risk following lumpectomy, says White. The omission of radiation will leave patients with a slightly higher locoregional recurrence risk than if they had been radiated or had undergone a mastectomy.

The omission of radiation in younger patients with breast cancer. This is a bit harder, says White, because there are some subgroups of patients that can have quite high recurrence risks. Biologic selection criteria can be used along with the basic, clinical pathologic criteria to find a group of patients who may, indeed, have a slightly higher risk of local recurrence, but whose overall survival will not be significantly affected.