Wall Street Journal: More women with breast cancer could skip harsh radiation
University of Cincinnati Cancer Center experts comment on new study
A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found more older women with low-risk breast cancer could go without radiation after surgery to avoid additional costs and side effects without hurting survival.
Women in the study were 65 years old and older with early stage breast cancers and underwent surgery and hormone therapy. They were then divided into groups that did and did not receive additional radiation.
Ten years after surgery, survival rates in both groups were nearly equal, suggesting women could skip radiation without affecting their survival.
The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Elizabeth Shaughnessy, MD, PhD, and Sara Medek, MD, were not involved in the study but commented on it for an article in the Wall Street Journal.
“For a long time, anyone who had invasive breast cancer was getting the gambit,” said Medek, a radiation oncologist at the Cancer Center and assistant professor in UC's College of Medicine. “Now, we’re trying to tease out who needs what and when.”
“If I could have skipped out on radiation without a detriment to my outcome, I would have,” said Shaughnessy, director of cancer survivorship at the Cancer Center and adjunct professor and vice chair for patient experience in the College of Medicine. Dr. Shaughnessy was diagnosed in 2019 with multiple tumors in her breast, making her ineligible to skip radiation, she said.
Read the Wall Street Journal article.
Featured photo at top of breast cancer cells courtesy of the National Cancer Institute.
Related Stories
Sugar overload killing hearts
November 10, 2025
Two in five people will be told they have diabetes during their lifetime. And people who have diabetes are twice as likely to develop heart disease. One of the deadliest dangers? Diabetic cardiomyopathy. But groundbreaking University of Cincinnati research hopes to stop and even reverse the damage before it’s too late.
Is going nuclear the solution to Ohio’s energy costs?
November 10, 2025
The Ohio Capital Journal recently reported that as energy prices continue to climb, economists are weighing the benefits of going nuclear to curb costs. The publication dove into a Scioto Analysis survey of 18 economists to weigh the pros and cons of nuclear energy. One economist featured was Iryna Topolyan, PhD, professor of economics at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business.
App turns smartwatch into detector of structural heart disease
November 10, 2025
An app that uses an AI model to read a single-lead ECG from a smartwatch can detect structural heart disease, researchers reported at the 2025 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association. Although the technology requires further validation, researchers said it could help improve the identification of patients with heart failure, valvular conditions and left ventricular hypertrophy before they become symptomatic, which could improve the prognosis for people with these conditions.