“Localized” therapies like radiation that focus on a specific tumor are not used as often as systemic drugs to treat breast cancer that has spread to multiple sites. So far, these therapies have not been shown to improve survival in people with metastatic breast cancer. Instead, our team uses radiation treatments to help manage cancer symptoms like pain. For example, radiation can help ease the pain caused by a tumor growing in a bone.
Radiation also can treat small brain metastases before they grow and cause harm. Some of the radiation treatments available for metastatic breast cancer include:
• Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), which spares healthy tissue because it allows doctors to “match” the radiation beam to the shape of the tumor. Radiation oncologists at UChicago Medicine were among the first to offer this advanced radiation treatment.
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which delivers very high doses of radiation to tumors using advanced targeting techniques. It can treat tumors in the bone and other types of metastases. Experts at UChicago Medicine conducted one of the first prospective trials testing the safety of SBRT to treat metastatic cancer.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS, or gamma knife), which delivers very high doses of radiation to tumors using advanced targeting techniques in the brain. Experts at UChicago Medicine have multiple trials open for brain metastases in the hope to further improve the treatment.
Radiation oncologists and medical oncologists at UChicago Medicine are also working together on clinical trials to see if radiation combined with systemic therapies like immunotherapy are effective against metastatic breast cancer.