Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in England and Wales and one in nine women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives. Research published today (Monday 1st March 2004) in the Institute of Physics journal Physics in Medicine & Biology reveals a new technique that will help doctors to judge more accurately how long they should continue to see patients following successful treatment of breast cancer. Doctors currently see patients for follow-up examinations for up to ten years in order to check for recurrence of the tumour. Until now, this length time (the "follow-up period") has been guess-work by doctors, and is generally much longer than necessary.
Dr. Richard Mould, the lead author of the paper, said: "Doctors tend to follow-up cancer patients for much longer than is really necessary, using hospital resources that could be better spent on frontline treatment such as chemotherapy drugs and better imaging technology in hospitals."
He continued: "This is the first time scientists have produced a formal way of calculating a precise length of follow-up needed, and it can be specific to a particular hospital or region. Our study suggests that follow up times can be reduced from ten years to four years without significantly reducing our ability to detect local tumour reccurrance. This means that six years worth of a physician's time and outpatient clinic costs could instead be diverted to parts of the treatment process where it would do more good."
Using data taken from a series of patients with T1 and T2 stage (primary tumours up to 5cm in greatest dimension) breast cancer from the Institut Curie in Paris, Dr. Mould developed a model which involves calculating a "trade-off" between the maximum length of time needed for follow-up against the number of patients who will experience a delay. He found that doctors at Institut Curie could reduce their follow-up period from ten years to four years without any significant delay in detection of recurrence for breast cancer patients.
The research team, led by Dr Mould, included Bernard Asselain and Yann De Rycke, from the Institut Curie, Paris, France.
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Notes to editors:
1. The paper 'Methodology to predict a maximum follow-up period for breast cancer patients without significantly reducing the chance of detecting a local recurrence' by Richard F. Mould, Bernard Asselain and Yann De Rycke will be published in the Institute of Physics journal Physics in Medicine & Biology on 1st March 2004. It is available during the embargo period on request. The reference for this paper is: Physics in Medicine & Biology, Vol. 5, 7 March 2004.
2. For further information contact: David Reid, Press Officer, Institute of Physics, Tel: 207-470-4815 or 773-425-6729, e-mail: david.reid@iop.org.
3. Alternatively, contact the authors directly. Dr Richard Mould: Tel: 208-657-8976, E-mail: richardfmould@hotmail.com.
4. The Institute of Physics is a leading international professional body and learned society with over 37,000 members, which promotes the advancement and dissemination of a knowledge of and education in the science of physics, pure and applied. It has a world-wide membership and is a major international player in:
The Institute is a member of the Science Council, and a nominated body of the Engineering Council. The Institute works in collaboration with national physical societies and plays an important role in transnational societies such as the European Physical Society and represents British and Irish physicists in international organisations. In Great Britain and Ireland the Institute is active in providing support for physicists in all professions and careers, encouraging physics research and its applications, providing support for physics in schools, colleges and universities, influencing government and informing public debate.
Journal
Physics in Medicine and Biology