Think Pinker

According to Newsday Dr. Tim Whelan of McMaster University discovered that the length of the treatment could be shortened just by boosting the dosage of the treatment.

A five week treatment regime can be reduced to three weeks by using more aggressive radiation treatments. Any woman dealing with breast cancer would be thrilled to know that they can be through their treatments quicker and they’ll be more effective.

There’s a significant cost savings attached to this as well. This means savings to insurance companies, and even insurance to individuals who find themselves paying for their treatments.

The shorter treatments are becoming quite popular in Canada and Europe, however the US seems is considerably slower jumping on bar. Many different Breast Cancer support groups are anxious to see the shorter treatment periods become more standard in the US.

In the US it’s quite common for a woman to have to travel back and forth to a treatment center every day for more than a month, and those treatment centers can be quite some distance form where they live.

It means traveling when you least feel like it, trying to find someone that can be your driver, especially if you are suffering from many side effects. Or the last option is to move near your treatment which can put a great deal of strain on your finances, and it leaves you apart from your family when you need their support the most.

Chemotherapy has undergone similar changes over the years and it seems radiation may be about to follow the same path. For women (and men) undergoing breast cancer treatment it’s a sigh of relief that they can be done with their treatments sooner, with a better outcome, and that means they can back to the business of living sooner.