An active woman in her 60s, Patterson had almost no family history of the disease, save for a cousin who developed breast cancer in 1994. Patterson’s tumor was very small, about the size of a pencil eraser, and common among women in her age group.
After a lumpectomy surgery in June to remove the tumor, her Mandeville breast surgeon gave her two options: She could go through a traditional course of radiation treatments, which would last five to six weeks and have the potential for difficult side effects, or she could undergo a series of 10 treatments in five days, with each treatment lasting no more than eight minutes.
  
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“Everyone knew Dr. Hightower, and there was so much confidence surrounding him and his team,” she said. “I had no doubts at all.”
Patterson became one of the first patients at SMH to be treated with MammoSite Therapy, a minimally invasive procedure in which a balloon catheter is placed inside the lumpectomy cavity. A tiny source of radiation, called a “seed,” is placed within the balloon, a tiny latex bubble filled with liquid, by a computerized machine.
First cleared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 2002, the therapy has been used to treat about 38,000 women nationwide. The unit at SMH became active in May and is the first available on the Northshore.
According to Hightower, this type of therapy, in which a high dose of radiation is used to treat a patient following surgery, is not in itself new.
“It’s part of what we call breast conservation, where we remove the primary tumor but keep the surrounding tissue,” said Hightower. “It’s been used for at least 20 years or so and has been proven to be identical to a mastectomy in terms of outcome.”
The new development in treatment, however, means a much shorter treatment time with little to no side effects, such as hair loss, nausea or pain. It also reduces radiation exposure to the healthy tissue.
A surgeon implants the balloon and then sends the patient to the hospital, where the radioactive source is fed into it. The treatments are done about six hours apart. The medical team wants to make sure the balloon stays in place and remains the same size, so a CAT scan is performed before each treatment.
After the last treatment the balloon is deflated and removed. There’s no hospital stay and, according to Patterson, there was no discomfort in the procedure.
“It’s a little awkward to have this balloon hanging out of you for a few days,” she said. “But there was no painful sensation at all, and absolutely zero side effects.”
Hightower said not all women qualify for the treatment. Women with smaller tumors are prime candidates, as long as the tumor is not in the lymph nodes. Breast size is also important, as the tumor has to be far enough beneath the skin that surface tissue is not affected by the radiation.
A woman’s age is also a key factor.
“Generally a woman over 45 is a good candidate for this treatment,” said Hightower. “Younger women tend to carry a higher risk of recurrence elsewhere in the breast, which then requires treatment of the whole breast.”
The hospital’s Clinical Director of Radiation Oncology, Lori Fonte, agreed, saying this is a case where being younger does not work in one’s favor. Younger women have denser breast tissue, which gives the cancer a better environment to grow. She pointed out, however, that cure rates are going up.
“Education and early detection are key,” said Fonte. “There is no better advocate than a survivor, and they’re the ones that are out there rallying the troops.”
Add Patterson to that list. She was back to water aerobics and visiting with her baby granddaughter within two weeks of her treatment and said she would absolutely recommend it.
“I’m amazed at how everything worked so incredibly well,” she said. “It made dealing with cancer a whole lot easier.”
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