Majority of women with early-stage breast cancer in U.S. receive unnecessarily long courses of radiation

Two-thirds of women treated for early-stage breast cancer in the U.S. receive longer radiation therapy than necessary, according to a new study from Penn Medicine researchers Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, and Justin E. Bekelman, MD. Their findings reveal that the vast majority of women after breast conserving surgery receive six to seven weeks of radiation therapy, despite multiple randomized trials and professional society guidelines showing that three weeks of radiation – called hypofractionated whole breast radiation – is just as clinically effective, more convenient, and less costly. Read more here.