Boston (SmartAboutHealth) - According to a new study released this week, targeted radiation therapy is just as effective as a full-blown radiation treatment when it comes to helping with the prevention of breast cancer recurrence in many women.

The study was led by researchers from around the world, including Jayant S. Vaidya from the University College London, as well as David Joseph from the University of Western Australia.

Researchers worked to try and see if a targeted radiation treatment that just focused on one area of the breast was as effective as a whole-breast radiation treatment.

For the purpose of the study, they looked at the medical records of around 1,000 women who all had breast cancer.

These women received what is known as trageted intraoperative radiotherapy. They then compared these women to a similar number of breast cancer patients who went through a whole-breast radiation treatment.

What researchers found was that there was very little difference in regards to the risk of breast cancer recurrence whether the women went through the full radiation, or the targeted radiation.

After a period of 4-years went by, 6 women who received the targeted radiation saw a breast cancer recurrence, compared to 5 who went through the whole-breast radiation.

The study is set to be published in the journal The Lancet.