BOSTON, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. doctors have found patients receiving accelerated-partial breast radiation therapy after a lumpectomy for breast cancer can develop seroma.
Seroma, the retaining of fluid in the breast, can require aspiration or make monitoring of the breasts by physical exam more difficult, according to lead author Dr. Suzanne B. Evans of Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The researchers studied 38 patients who had a balloon brachytherapy catheter inserted during lumpectomy surgery to remove the cancerous tumor from their breasts at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston and Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, R.I.
With a balloon brachytherapy system, after removing the cancerous lump from the breast, doctors implant a small balloon into the space where the tumor was removed and a radiation source is placed inside the breast temporarily to deliver high doses of radiation to the tumor site to eliminate any cancer cells.
Seroma development was quite high in patients treated with a balloon brachytherapy system, when the device is placed at the time of lumpectomy surgery, according to the study published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics.
