There may be some good news for breast cancer patients.

New research shows that shorter, more intense courses of radiation treatment work just as well as more drawn-out therapy for early-stage breast cancer patients, Reuters reports. Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women around the globe.

Researchers told a meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology in Boston Monday that one- to three-week treatments where the patient comes in every day for a 15-minute visit worked just as well as five- to seven-week ones. The shorter treatments also cost two thirds as much as traditional therapy.

The approach is called accelerated hypofractionated whole breast irradiation. The cancer recurrence rate was about the same for both methods.

Dr. Peter Beitsch and colleagues at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Texas also presented their results of an approach called accelerated partial breast irradiation, which uses radioactive "seeds" implanted in the region after a tumor has been removed. It worked as well as standard radiation among 400 women followed for four years.

"Not only does it make radiation treatment much more convenient, it may actually increase the rate of breast conservation, since some women choose mastectomy because they live too far from a radiation center and cannot afford the time and expense of six to seven weeks of living or traveling to the center," Beitsch said in a statement.

Newsday reports that while some medical centers in the United States already offer shorter-course therapy for some patients, the practice is more common in Canada and Europe.