Surgical technique of mammosite RTS implant for accelerated radiation delivery in breast conserving surgery

Breast conserving surgery followed by radiation therapy has been accepted as an alternative to mastectomy in the management of patients with early-stage breast cancer. Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in a variety of radiation techniques designed to treat only the portion of the breast deemed to be at high risk for local recurrence and to shorten the duration of treatment. This article describes the surgical technique of implant of a new device developed with the goal of making breast conserving therapy more widely adopted. Our preliminary results showed that breast conserving therapy, using high dose-rate brachytherapy delivered with this new device as the sole radiation modality, is both technically feasible and well tolerated by the patients with excellent cosmetic results. This new method seems to be an important step forward in the search for a more conservative treatment for women with breast cancer, and for providing a better quality of life.