I've just been diagnosed with this but treatment has not yet commenced. I've read about a newish procedure called IORT, which is carried out immediately after a lumpectomy. Has anyone had this/or can give me any more information please. Thanks
Thanks for your post. The moderators have asked us nurses to post a reply.
Intraoperative Radiotherapy (IORT) has been used in trials in the UK, there are some private hospitals who offer the treatment but it is not available on the NHS. It is not suitable for every breast cancer patient and so talking about it with your specialist doctor is a good idea.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have not approved it as a treatment yet but it is in the process of being looked at by them. I don’t know when this will be completed. They are waiting for more information from the results of trials to find out whether it is a suitable treatment to be offered.
There have been a couple of trials looking at IORT. One of them is called target-a and you can read the results here . I am not aware of any trials looking at this at the moment.
Hopefully there will be someone on the forum who has had this and can talk about it from personal knowledge.
