Two cutting-edge, breast-saving procedures are actively being explored as alternatives to more invasive surgery for many women with breast cancer. One procedure “cooks” small tumors as an alternative to surgery, and the other delivers radiation from temporarily implanted seeds. These techniques will allow women to avoid having a mastectomy and reduces standard radiation therapy from six weeks to a few days. Meanwhile, high-technology screening options are being explored to enhance or even replace screening mammograms. If these methods prove effective in several large studies, “we may have new (screening) guidelines in the next one to four years,” says Etta Pisano, MD, chief of breast imaging at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who is involved in some of those trials.
