Most early-stage breast cancer patients have two options for treatment: a complete mastectomy with full removal of the breast or lumpectomy where doctors remove only the cancerous lump.

A lumpectomy must be followed by six to seven weeks of radiation five times a week, according to Dr. John Purviance, a radiation oncologist at Rocky Mountain Oncology in Casper.

"A lot of women opt for a mastectomy," Purviance said. "They can't take out six weeks of their lives."

He said this is especially true for women living in rural Wyoming, where six weeks of radiation could mean hours in a car every day and thousands of miles logged on the odometer. He sees breast cancer patients from Lander, Lusk and other areas around the state without radiation oncologists.

Now, there is a third option in Wyoming for certain breast cancer patients from Purviance and his colleagues.

Partial breast radiation involves concentrating a higher dose of radiation to a smaller area of the breast. Only the tumor site receives radiation instead of the entire breast. Because of the higher dose, treatment usually lasts only five days.

Purviance said it is a safe and accepted form of radiation therapy that is as effective as the six-week therapy.

In 2005, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a large clinical trial to determine if partial breast radiation was as safe and effective as whole breast radiation, according to the American Cancer Society.

Several smaller, short-term studies suggest it is, but the society says it needs to be studied more.

Purviance said he and colleagues performed the procedure frequently in Boston, where he finished his residency. When he moved to Casper about a year ago, he encouraged Rocky Mountain Oncology to begin offering partial breast radiation.

He began offering the therapy locally in May 2008. Currently, only four women have received the therapy.

Rocky Mountain Oncology is the only clinic in the state offering it, Purviance said.

"Does this help us cure more cancer? No," Purviance said. "But it allows us to give them some more options."

The new, quicker radiation treatment helped Jean Mullins decide to opt for a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy.

One doctor recommended a mastectomy while another suggested a lumpectomy.

At 40, she didn't want to go through the major, disfiguring mastectomy, but she didn't like the option of six weeks of radiation every day in Casper, 145 miles from her home in Lander.

"I didn't want to take that much time off work," said Mullins, who is in office manager for a women's clinic.

Mullins' doctors said she was a candidate for partial breast radiation because the lump was small - less than two centimeters in size, the cancer was in an early stage and the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes.

Purviance said the radiation treatment isn't for all breast cancer patients.

Last week, Mullins spent Monday through Friday in Casper visiting the oncology office twice a day for radiation.

"This is five days. It's really a lot easier to swing when you are working and have a family," she said.

Carol Higgins watched her mother deal with breast cancer three years earlier.

"She had to do seven weeks of radiation," said Higgins, who spends her summers in Casper. "It was pretty exhausting. She had much more of an ordeal than I did."

When Higgins was diagnosed with it in May, she met the criteria for a lumpectomy and partial radiation.

Each therapy session lasted only about 10 minutes, and she said the only side effects she had were some skin changes and fatigue.

She felt some discomfort when she slept because she had to lay on her back to make sure the tiny tube sticking out of her breast didn't become dislodged.

In order to perform partial radiation, doctors insert a balloon catheter into the breast during lumpectomy surgery or shortly after. Part of the catheter, or tiny tube, remains outside the breast.

During the radiation, the tube is hooked to a device that pushes the radioactive source through the catheter directly to the target site, according to Purviance. It lasts less than 15 minutes.

Higgins and Mullins didn't mind it was a new treatment. It comforted Higgins to know Purviance had been performing it for a long time.

"Anything that is new has it risks," Mullins said, "but so does the old stuff."

Contact health reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.