Generally it consists of a daily trip to the hospital for five to seven weeks to receive targeted radiotherapy to their breast. Seven weeks is a long time and can be particularly inconvenient for working women, those who live far away from a radiation treatment center, and for those who just want to get the treatment over with as quickly as possible.

Now, a treatment is available for women allowing them to receive the same level of radiation therapy in five days – breast brachytherapy.

"Breast brachytherapy allows women to preserve their breast and get their treatment in a very short period of time," says Imran Zoberi, MD, radiation oncologist at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

Over the past two decades, the standard treatment for early stage breast cancer breast cancer has been a lumpectomy and external beam radiotherapy. Over time, it has shown excellent survival results compared with mastectomy, while preserving the breast. However, the primary disadvantages are five to seven weeks of external beam treatment and potential side effects to the adjacent organs such as the underlying heart and lungs.

When confronted with those possible side effects in September 2003, Kimberly Oesch, 41, of St. Peters asked if there were other options. "That''s when they told me about brachytherapy," says Oesch. "It was very appealing to me to get it done in a short amount of time and I didn''t have the burning and skin breakdown you might get with the traditional treatment."

Those problems are avoided by delivering a precisely targeted dose of radiation to the tissues most at risk for recurrence. An array of small catheter tubes are inserted into the breast and twice a day for five days radiation from a treatment unit runs through the tubes right to the targeted area. "This allows for a more targeted radiation dose," says Dr. Zoberi.

After the last treatment, the tubes are removed from the breast and antibiotic ointment is applied to the catheter insertion sites. The patient is instructed on skin care and given an appointment to return for a follow-up visit.

After her weeklong treatment Oesch returned to work. "Everybody was great at Siteman, I''m glad this option was available."

Dr. Zoberi says the Siteman Cancer Center has not only been one of the leaders in St. Louis in providing brachytherapy for breast cancer, but "We''ve been the leader in all sites throughout the body, such as prostate and gynecologic cancers."

For more information about breast brachytherapy, call the Siteman Cancer Center at 314-747-7222 or 800-600-3606.