2/5/2006

A new breast cancer treatment developed at Cardiff University will help 20,000 sufferers every year and ease the strain on the NHS by reducing time spent in hospital and freeing up beds.

Eminent breast surgeon Professor Robert Mansel, of the University School of Medicine, is currently training every hospital in the UK offering breast cancer surgery in his new technique of sentinel node biopsy.

The new treatment can reduce the number of lymph nodes to be removed from a patient armpit, resulting in better arm function, less discomfort, shorter hospital stays and improved quality of life.

Professor Mansel's techniques have also been adopted in the USA and the findings of his research are due to be published tomorrow (May 3) in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the world's most influential journal in the cancer field.

The previous standard operation in the NHS removed all the nodes under the arm as a precaution against cancer spread, but it could often lead to permanent arm swelling and numbness.

Professor Mansel has shown it is only necessary to identify and remove one node (the lead or the "sentinel" node) by using a tiny dose of the radioactive isotope Nanocoll, developed by GE Healthcare. If the sentinel node is clear, as it is in around 75% of patients with screen detected cancer, there is no need to
remove the other 20-30 nodes.

Early results suggest patients have low cancer recurrence rates and the same survival rates as women undergoing the previous standard operation.

The Department of Health has funded Professor Mansel to roll out training in the technique across the country after successful initial trials. Professor Mansel said it was extremely rare for medical research to be translated into standard practice so quickly.

He said: "The impact of this change will be huge. The change in
practice will be applicable to 20,000 women in the UK every year. It will mean a great improvement in quality of life, three fewer days in a hospital bed for each patient and will be much cheaper, at around only £30 per patient for the isotope and dye used in the procedure."

Professor Mansel is due to deliver a paper on the initial trial at the Association of Surgeons annual scientific meeting in Edinburgh tomorrow. The trial involved 1,031 breast cancer patients at 13 UK hospitals between November 1999 and October 2003.