October is breast cancer awareness month, and new technology is giving hope to the more than 200,000 women in the United States diagnosed with breast cancer each year. A recent study shows that a cutting-edge treatment technique may prove more effective and produce fewer side effects than traditional radiation therapy.

A treatment called Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) has the ability to wrap a dose of radiation around the tumor. This differs from older procedures, which radiated not just the tumor but also a larger margin of normal tissues and organs surrounding the tumor, sometimes leading to troublesome side effects.

Breast cancer patients are just the latest group to benefit from this advanced radiation therapy. Doctors also use IMRT to help treat prostate cancer and cancers of the head and neck. IMRT may also reduce the overall costs of cancer treatment. But while IMRT might give hope to breast cancer patients, doctors still say early detection is still a woman's best bet.



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