For women diagnosed with early breast cancer, undergoing a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy is often the preferred option, but most still face weeks of radiation therapy afterward. But now some are able to get their radiation over in a single session, thanks to a relatively new type of treatment.

Known as Intraoperative Radiation Therapy, or IORT, this type of high-dose, single-session radiation is administered during the lumpectomy procedure itself, instead of requiring up to four-to-eight weeks of daily radiation after surgery, Dr. Craig Wengler tells Newsmax Health.

“Going daily for radiation sessions for weeks can be exhausting, especially for patients who live far way from the treatment center,” says Wengler, a breast cancer surgeon at Martin Medical Center in Stuart, Fla. “Sometimes the women may not follow through, or they may opt to have a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy, even though this isn’t medically necessary.”

Diane Fraser recently faced this situation.  Fraser, 67, was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. 

“I met with Dr. Wengler and he told me about IORT. Once he showed me the studies and explained that I could have all my radiation done at once, compared to five or six weeks, it was kind of a no-brainer,” she says.

IORT has been around for decades. It was once reserved for patients undergoing abdominal cancer surgery, but thanks to new technology, such as iCAD's Xoft System, its use has now expanded to breast cancer. Martin is one of 50 centers worldwide that are performing the procedure, says Wengler.

This procedure, though, is only for patients with tiny tumors, stage 1 or 2, that are localized, meaning they haven't spread to the lymph nodes, Wengler notes.

During lumpectomy, a breast surgeon works with a radiation oncologist to both remove the cancer and administer the radiation while the patient is still under anesthesia. After the tumor is removed, the radiation is delivered using a balloon-shaped applicator, which is then temporarily placed in the lumpectomy cavity for the single dose of radiation.

The treatment time varies based on each individual patient’s situation, but the system can deliver a full course of radiation in as little as eight minutes, says Wengler.

The procedure is catching on thanks to a growing body of research, including one study known as the TARGIT-A trial, which found that women undergoing IORT and conventional radiation had similar recurrence rates.

This study, which was published in 2014, was conducted at 33 medical centers and involved 1,721 patients, aged 45 and older, with invasive breast cancer. One group received conventional external beam radiation (EBRT), while the other received IORT, and the women were followed for five years.

The result was that both techniques showed roughly the same breast cancer survival rates: 97.4 percent for IORT compared to 98.1 percent for EBRT.  A smaller study found similar results.

There were some differences, though. The research found that about 15 percent of the women who underwent IORT had to eventually undergo whole breast radiation. This is sometimes a risk, says Wengler, because it can be difficult to ascertain whether some cancers have spread prior to the surgery.

There was also one other difference: The women who underwent IORT were found to have a lower mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease or other types of cancer. It’s known that EBRT radiation to the chest can produce a “scatter effect,” putting breast cancer survivors at a higher risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack, and other forms of cancer later on.

“IORT is a relatively young type of radiation treatment, so we’re only starting to learn about the long-term effects, but it makes sense that if you only have the radiation effect within a few centimeters, you are going to reduce the risk of radiation to nearby tissue such as the lungs, ribs and the heart," notes Wengler.

For Fraser, undergoing both the lumpectomy – and IORT – was far easier than she expected. 

“Two-and-a half-weeks later, I was back in my aerobics class, and it’s a pretty tough class. Everything went so well, it’s hard to believe I ever had cancer,” she says.