A study to assess the S4A support bra for women having radiotherapy for breast cancer

Cancer type:

Breast cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This study looked at whether it is helpful for women to wear a support bra during radiotherapy for breast cancer.

The study was open for people to join between 2017 and 2018. The team presented the results at a conference in 2020.

More about this trial

This study was for women having radiotherapy after an operation to remove an area of breast cancer. When women have radiotherapy for breast cancer, they are naked from the waist up. This can make them feel quite self conscious.

They also have a couple of small permanent tattoos on their skin. These help the radiographers target the radiotherapy to the right area each time. When this study was done, women often had 15 treatments over 3 weeks. Each treatment is called a fraction.

Radiotherapy is targeted at the cancer as precisely as possible. But it can also affect healthy tissue nearby. This can cause side effects. Side effects of radiotherapy for breast cancer can include sore skin, heart problems and lung problems.

Researchers for this study developed a special bra called the SuPPORT 4 All (S4A) bra. The team used this bra and a single tattoo to help:

get people in the right position for treatment
lift the breast away from other organs such as the heart and lungs

They hope this will help make treatment more accurate and reduce side effects. They also hope it will help maintain people’s dignity during treatment. But first they had to do a small study to find out if it was possible to do a larger trial.

The main aims of the study were to see if wearing a support bra can help:

make radiotherapy more accurate for women with larger breasts
reduce side effects
make women less self conscious during treatment

Summary of results

The research team found that the SuPPORT 4 All bra may be useful during radiotherapy for breast cancer.

Study design
A total of 50 people joined this study. They had all had surgery to remove an area of breast cancer and were due to have radiotherapy.

They were put into a treatment group at random and there were:

25 people in the group having standard radiotherapy
25 people in the group using the SuPPORT 4 All bra

SuPPORT 4 All study randomisation diagram

Results
Out of 25 people in each group:

all 25 women in the standard radiotherapy group had treatment as planned
18 women in the S4A group wore the bra during radiotherapy

The results showed that women who wore the S4A bra:

had a lower dose of radiotherapy to their lungs, possibly reducing the risks of future lung problems
didn’t have an increase in problems with skin irritation caused by the bra material

Conclusion
The research team concluded that the S4A bra was useful for women having radiotherapy for breast cancer. They suggest a larger trial is done to find out more about how well it works.

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.