Improving Breast Cancer Care

A new MammoSiteML catheter is now available at Kettering Medical Center to help ensure that early breast cancer will not recur after a patient has a lumpectomy. Like the first generation of MammoSite, this newest catheter is used in a five-day treatment course which is more than five times faster than external beam (direct) radiation treatments. The newest generation of MammoSite, however, is even better at providing targeted doses, allowing physicians to do follow up treatment on tumors that are even closer to skin or bone surfaces. It employs multiple channels that allow better shaping of the radiation dose to avoid radiating areas a physician does not want to hit.

During a lumpectomy procedure, the balloon is placed within the surgical void after a lesion is removed. Then the radiation sources are fed into the catheter twice a day during treatment. By radiating the area close to where the tumor was removed, doctors can dramatically decrease the chances of cancer coming back.

Patient response has been overwhelmingly positive to the multiple channel catheter treatment, which has been available for about five months at Kettering Medical Center. For more than eight years, early breast cancer patients have been treated successfully with the MammoSite and Contura balloons.

Learn more below with channel 2 news coverage.