Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 02:39:22 EDT

New breast cancer treatment to go on trial 

A new treatment for breast cancer is about to be trialled in Australia. "Intrabeam" is a device developed in the United States. During surgery to remove a tumour it is used to administer a single dose of radiotherapy, treating the tumour bed and possibly eliminating the need for conventional radiation therapy that takes several weeks.

Initial trials will be conducted at the Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne.

Dr David Joseph from the Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital says the method also eliminates the need to radiate healthy breast tissue.

"The advantage of intra-operative therapy [is] that you can direct it specifically to where treatment is needed and move all the other tissue out of the way," he said. Thursday 12 July, 2001 3:48pm AEST © 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.