SAN DIEGO, Sept. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey finds breast cancer patients' actual radiation therapy experiences largely exceeded their expectations. The survey, which addressed the fears and misconceptions regarding radiation therapy for breast cancer, found that more than three-fourths of the breast cancer patients surveyed found their experiences with radiation therapy, including overall and specific long-term and short-term side effects, to be less "scary" than anticipated, according to research presented today at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

"Radiation oncologists know firsthand that our patients come in with fears and sometimes misconceptions. Unlike many other treatments and fields of medicine, it is very hard to imagine what radiation therapy is like," said Narek Shaverdian, MD, lead author of the study and a radiation oncology resident at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "Still, it is surprising to find that upwards of 90 percent of women surveyed agree that if future patients knew the reality of the radiation therapy experience, they would be less afraid of treatment.

"Advances in radiation therapy technologies over the past several decades and the increased use of hypofractionation—where radiation is given in larger doses across fewer sessions—have afforded patients more convenient treatment options, as well as lower toxicity rates in many situations," said Dr. Shaverdian.
"Our study shows that women who received modern breast radiation therapy overwhelmingly found the treatment experience far better than expected. The negative stories out there are frightening and pervasive, but they generally are not reflective of the actual experience," said Susan McCloskey, MD, MSHS, assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Director of the Breast Service at UCLA Radiation Oncology and senior author of the study.

Surveys were sent to all patients who received treatment for breast cancer at a UCLA-affiliated multidisciplinary breast cancer clinic between 2012 and 2016. Eligible patients had six or more months of follow-up and were without tumor recurrence. Sixty-five percent of these 502 patients returned surveys, and study findings are based on these 327 responses. The median age of survey respondents was 59 years (range 28-89 years).

Patients represented various disease stages; 18 percent had stage 0 breast cancer; 38 percent stage I; 34 percent stage II; and 9 percent stage III. Eighty two percent underwent breast conserving surgery, 13% had axillary dissection, 37% received chemotherapy, and 70% received endocrine therapy. All patients received radiation therapy (RT), delivered as either standard whole-breast RT with or without regional nodal coverage, hypofractionated whole-breast RT, post-mastectomy RT, or partial breast RT.

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