Lahey Health is now part of Beth Israel Lahey Health

The Lahey Health Cancer Institute (LHCI) offers every possible option for breast cancer radiation therapy, including leading-edge procedures that can greatly reduce treatment time and side effects.

No Unnecessary Radiation

Patient receiving radiation treatment for breast cancerWe are focused on not exposing you to unnecessary radiation, so we are particularly skilled at adapting our services to treat you with the least amount of radiation needed.

Partial Irradiation Intraoperative Radiation External Radiation Quality and Safety

Partial Breast Irradiation (PBI)

Partial breast irradiation is a procedure for women with early-stage breast cancer. After the tumor is removed with surgery, radiation is delivered directly via a thin tube called a catheter to the area where the cancer had been located, to destroy any remaining cancer cells. Instead of up to two months of radiation treatment, PBI requires just two treatments a day for five consecutive days.

Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT)

LHCI is the only provider in the region to offer intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) as part of partial breast irradiation for women pursuing breast-conserving surgery. This procedure allows the patient to have a lumpectomy and a radiation treatment in the same day in the operating room.

External Radiation

External radiation, also called external beam radiation, is the most common type of radiation therapy for women with breast cancer. In this procedure, radiation from a machine outside the body is focused on the area affected by cancer. External radiation is painless and is similar to getting an x-ray, although the radiation beam is stronger.

Quality and Safety Accreditation

Your safety is very important to us. Some of our quality and safety initiatives for radiation therapy include:

  • Lahey uses the XECAN patient care and safety management system, which is technology that helps ensure the correct treatment of cancer patients.
  • We have an overarching safety program called the Radiation Oncology Safety Initiative (ROSI), which focuses on all aspects of radiation oncology that have an effect on safety.
  • We are members of the Clarity Patient Safety Organization (PSO), which operates the national Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System. By belonging to a national incident-learning database, we are able to compare our experience to that of all other participating institutions in the country, enhancing the potential for discovering significant error-prevention opportunities.
  • All of the radiation therapy sites within the Lahey Health system are accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR), which ensures quality and safety in patient care.
  • The Breast Center at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, the Breast Cancer Center at Winchester Hospital, and Beverly Hospital’s Breast Health Center at the Lahey Outpatient Center, Danvers, are all accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) for their quality of care and monitoring of outcomes for patients with breast cancer and other breast diseases.