UCL in the News: Breakthrough in breast cancer surgery

After a tumour is removed, the usual follow-up treatment for breast cancer is a course of radiotherapy lasting up to seven weeks.

But the new technique means a radiotherapy probe is inserted into the breast during the surgery to target the exact site of the cancer. …

The trial is being led by surgeon Mo Keshtgar, oncologist Professor Jeffrey Tobias and former consultant surgeon Professor Michael Baum [UCL Surgery]. …

Professor Baum said that if the technique was a long-term success, it could have a major impact on the NHS.

"Around 30 per cent of radiotherapy is for breast cancer.

"If you removed that then, at a stroke, it would cut the workload of radiotherapy centres by nearly a third and cut waiting lists from around 12 weeks to no weeks," he said.

Lyndsay Moss, 'The Scotsman'