A trial looking at radiotherapy after surgery for women over 65 years old with breast cancer (PRIME 2)

This trial looked at whether older women with breast cancer need to have radiotherapy after their surgery.

Doctors often treat breast cancer with surgery followed by radiotherapy.

Doctors running this trial felt that there may be no need for older women with breast cancer to have radiotherapy after surgery, especially if they have a small low grade breast cancer and can have hormone therapy. This is because there is less chance that the cancer will come back (recur). All treatments have some side effects and it is important that women do not have treatments they don’t need.

Half of the women in this trial had radiotherapy, and the other half didn’t. Everyone taking part had hormone therapy.

The aim of the trial was to see if it is necessary for older women with low risk breast cancer to have radiotherapy after surgery.