MedWatch- Accuboost helps save breasts during early stage cancer from Medwatch 7 KSWO on Vimeo.
LAWTON, OK (KSWO)- More women with early-stage breast cancer are choosing to treat cancer and save their breast– breast conservation therapy and a non-invasive procedure called Accuboost is helping them do that.
The AccuBoost procedure is a non-invasive way to deliver radiation to breast cancer patients.
“It uses a source of radiation that gives treatment to a very small area, so we can save a lot of the tissue of the breast from having the side effects of radiation.”
Radiation Oncologist Dr. Mary Leann Smith says AccuBoost is used to treat breast cancer that has not spread to any lymph nodes or spread to any other parts of the body that is localized in the breast.
“It’s a way to give an early stage breast cancer patient a good treatment, in addition to their surgery, for early-stage breast cancer.”
Dr. Smith says the Accuboost treatment has fewer side effects than other forms of brachytherapy.
“This non-invasive way of doing brachytherapy is new. But so far, what we’ve shown is that the side effects are less than the other ways of doing brachytherapy. And certainly less than if we were to do traditional whole breast radiation.”
October is breast cancer awareness month, and Dr. Smith wants to remind women to be proactive and get their yearly mammograms.
“We are here and our department is here and we have a great imaging department as well that does mammograms and does all the biopsies that might be needed for anyone who is interested.”
Dr. Smith says they encourage any woman who is interested in the AccuBoost treatment to come and talk to them to find out if they are a good candidate.
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