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Precision Breast IORT
is an exciting option
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for many of our patients
because, really, it
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allows them to get their breast
cancer treated, essentially,
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all in one day, in one setting.

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Breast cancer's a scary
diagnosis for our patients.
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They have busy lives going on
at the time of their diagnosis.
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And they want to rush to
making a treatment decision.
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But one of the nice
things about patients
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that are diagnosed with
early-stage breast cancer
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is that they actually have time
to learn as much as possible
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and to make an informed
decision about their treatment.
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Traditionally, women with
early-stage breast cancer
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have a choice in their treatment
between either a mastectomy,
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which means removing all
of the breast tissue,
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versus breast-conserving
therapy, which
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is a lumpectomy
followed by radiation.
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Traditional radiation for breast
cancer lasts about six weeks.
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And it's daily radiation,
meaning the patient
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has to come to the
hospital every day
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for six weeks for
their treatment.
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I really didn't want to have
radiation after a surgery
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and have to go day
after day for weeks
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and have my body be radiated
when I felt like my diagnosis
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before had said it
was very, very--
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a small type of cancer.

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I didn't have an easy
feeling about it.
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I wanted more options.

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Intraoperative
radiation is a way
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to shorten that treatment
from the six weeks all down
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to one treatment at the
time of the breast surgery.
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The difference between
Precision Breast IORT
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and traditional
IORT is that we have
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a very unique brachytherapy
suite that is essentially
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an operating room that also
has a CAT scan machine in it.
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In other forms of intraoperative
radiation, there's no imaging.
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In our Precision Breast
IORT clinical trial,
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we're able to obtain imaging
of the patient's breast
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with the catheter in it
and, therefore, were then
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able to sculpt
the radiation dose
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and really target the dose to
the area where the cancer was.
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And then we make sure that
we sculpt the dose away
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from the skin, away from the
ribs, and away from the heart,
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and areas of the body
that really don't
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need to have radiation
and, essentially, could
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cause the patient harm.

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We're hopeful that women will
see the potential benefit
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of Precision Breast
IORT and want to come
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to UVA for this program.

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It's still part of
a clinical trial
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so that we're able to
follow them long-term.
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But we really hope that by
making radiation more palatable
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and much more convenient
for our patients--
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that more women will choose
to preserve their breasts.
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I was excited
about participating
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in a clinical trial.

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It was, really, a good decision.

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I felt great after surgery.

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It was like, this is all there?

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Is this over?

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And I didn't have to think
ahead about going day
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after day for radiation.

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And I didn't have to think
about any more surgeries.
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And it was amazing.