LOS ANGELES -- A new breast cancer treatment being tested in California promises pain-free and side-effect-free radiation therapy that's done quickly.

Dr. Melvin Silverstein and Dr. Dennis Holmes at the University of Southern California's Norris Cancer Center are conducting clinical trials of "Targit" -- an intraoperative radiotherapy that allows a breast cancer patient to get her radiation in 30 minutes versus the traditional treatment of about 35 days.

"This makes a huge difference," Holmes said. "For a lot of women, they choose to have a mastectomy because they can't accept the burden of radiation therapy."

The clinical trial is open to any woman in the United States over the age of 40 who has an invasive cancer about the size of a quarter or smaller that has not spread.

Holmes and Silverstein hope in a few years that this will be the standard treatment for all breast cancer patients. For more information about Targit, click here.