News Releases

Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital Offers New Breast Cancer Treatment Option

Although more than half of all breast cancers are diagnosed while the disease is still localized, many patients still choose to have the affected breast removed to prevent a recurrence.

The MammoSite® Radiation Therapy System (RTS) offers an alternate approach, with removal of the cancerous tumor followed by radiation, preserving the patient’s breast while still reducing the likelihood of the disease returning.

With MammoSite, a balloon catheter is surgically inserted into the cavity left by a lumpectomy and is used to deliver high-dose radiation from within, eliminating the need for mastectomy or external-beam radiation.

“We are excited about providing the MammoSite option, which cuts down on treatment time and allows women with small tumors to consider breast preservation,” said Kathleen Shadle, M.D., a radiation oncologist at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. “Patients usually receive MammoSite radiation twice a day for five days, compared to once a day for six weeks with traditional, external-beam radiation.”

The MammoSite catheter is inflated with saline after the lumpectomy, and a radioactive wire is inserted twice daily into the balloon through a tube outside the chest. No radiation source remains in the body between treatments or after the final treatment, when the balloon is deflated and the catheter removed.
Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital is the first facility in Southwest Houston and Fort Bend County to offer MammoSite RTS.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the MammoSite RTS in May 2002. The safety and effectiveness of the MammoSite RTS as a replacement for whole-breast irradiation in the treatment of breast cancer has not been established in randomized trials.

MammoSite is a registered trademark of Proxima Therapeutics.

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