Women in the Rock River Valley with early stage breast cancer now have a new treatment option available to help reduce recurrence of the disease.
Rockford Memorial Hospital now offers Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy, which uses a miniaturized X-ray source that can deliver localized and targeted radiation treatment. The new radiation therapy can reduce the five- to eight- week treatment time to just five days. It is designed to deliver treatment in an accelerated period without radioactive isotopes.
Radiation therapy is used to treat more than 1 million cancer patients a year and is administered after breast-sparing surgery to attempt to kill stray cancer cells that might remain in the breast and is proven to reduce the rate of local recurrences and improve long-term survival. The new Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy is designed to deliver therapy directly to cancer sites with minimal radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
If you would like more information about Electronic Brachytherapy for Breast Cancer, please call the Rockford Health System Radiation Oncology Department at (815) 971-6188.