Mayo Clinic Minute: Fast-track breast cancer treatment

Less than 10 days. That's all it takes for some early-stage breast cancer patients to complete their entire treatment, including surgery and a full course of radiation.

"For those patients who have small tumors that are completely removed with a lumpectomy and have no evidence of [cancer] in the lymph node, it's an outpatient procedure," says Dr. Tina Hieken, a Mayo Clinic surgeon.

Patients leave the operating room the same day as surgery with a catheter in place, which is used to administer a type of radiation therapy called brachytherapy. "Treatments are delivered over five weekdays, twice a day, approximately six hours apart, for a total of 10 treatments," says Dr. Sean Park, a Mayo Clinic radiation oncologist.

Brachytherapy itself is not new, but this fast-track treatment option, developed by Dr. Park and Dr. Hieken, is. The expedited brachytherapy treatment process is for low-risk, early-stage breast cancer patients and involves a single surgery.

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