Researchers, led by Jayant S. Vaidya of University College London and David Joseph of the University of Western Australia, have found in a study that Radiation Therapy, targeting the specific area of the breast is equally effective as compared with radiations targeting the whole breast. This Radiation Therapy has been found to be good for reducing the cases of breast cancer reappearance in some women.

Published in The Lancet, which was released on Saturday at the annual meeting on the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, the research is based on the medical records of about 1,000 breast cancer patients, aged 45 or older. Patients from Perth and Melbourne participated in the study.

The sample patients had received Intraoperative Radiotherapy. The study also studied the records of patients who had undergone whole breast external beam radiation.

The study shows that this targeted radiation is less time consuming and less costly. The therapy does not require patients to undergo weeks of painful treatment. This Intraoperative Therapy can also be considered as an alternative to external beam Radiotherapy for patients with early breast cancer.

Breast cancer is responsible for 16% of women cancer and approximately 500,000 women died of this form of cancer in 2004.