CANCER specialists have welcomed the much anticipated results of a decade-long trial of a treatment for early breast cancer that cuts a six-week course of tumour-destroying radiation to a single half-hour session.

"The results are extremely encouraging," says David Joseph, a radiation oncologist and director of the cancer division at Perth's Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

The goal of the procedure, intra-operative radiation therapy, is to make treatment more convenient and comfortable for women, while retaining as much of their affected breast as possible.

Theoretically, IORT could be performed at any hospital or treatment centre, and is cheaper to deliver since fewer medical visits are needed.

"That's why my [professional] college was originally not supportive of this concept," claims Joseph, co-chairman of the targeted intra-operative radiation therapy trial, or TARGIT, a head-to-head comparison of partial breast radiotherapy with conventional whole breast radiotherapy.

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Joseph claims critics gradually came around thanks to positive early results and strong support from patients.

As to the full results, he claims: "We're getting better results and less toxicity for patients with this treatment."

Along with co-leader Michael Baum, an oncologist with University College London, Joseph will present results of the multicentre trial today in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

Findings confirm the single-dose technique is as safe and effective as conventional radiotherapy for many women following removal of a tumour.

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