Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation- Anyone done it?

Watercolor

Hi!

I will have my radiation similation on Thurs (Oct 29).  Prior to that I am going to be consulting with my rad onc re: the potential for doing APBI which is one week of twice daily treatment to an area slightly larger than the lumpectomy.  Rationale is that most recurrance is in the lumpectomy area. Alternative is the usual 6 wks of tx.

Has anyone done APBI or been given the option?  I would be interested to hear how you came to a decision and if you did APBI, how did it turn out for you? 

strategyprof

I had the 5 day treatment with Contura - finished end August. I was very sore with all the catheters and walked around with an ice pack. I started to improve as soon as the device was removed, and was fine throughout September. However, I now seem to have delayed burn, which the rad onc insists can't be true and therefore must be infection.  But two surgeons say it is not infection, must be radiation. So now I am concerned about long term issues with all the radiation. My breast is extremely lumpy with lots of internal scar tissue from the device and treatment. I insisted on having this treatment instead of six weeks of external radiation. Now I'm not sure I should have. Too late now...

kl2260

I did PBI last winter with external beam and everything went fine. I really liked only having to go for 5 days instead of 6 weeks (even if it was twice a day) and having it over before chemo. Taking care of my skin was not a problem even though the red returned during the second cycle of chemo -- I just went back to using the aloe for a few days. On the home page of this website, there are links to some reseach that shows PBI is looking like a viable alternative to whole breast radiation. Very encouraging news.

ICanDoThis

I think this is the best form of rads. I've posted positive info about it before

I liked the accelerated schedule a LOT. I was back to work the Monday after completing rads, although, looking back, I could have used a couple of more days of sleep!

My skin is lovely. No one can tell from the skin quality which breast was irradiated. Rad onc says that it is the best he has ever seen. And I used no creams or nothing until 2 weeks after treatment was over - then I used Vitamin E oil.

My life was rads - go to rads, go home, exercise, eat a sandwich, go to rads, go to sleep. Repeat daily for 5 days. But it was over in 5 DAYS.

The treatments are longer, and the table is hard. My back wasn't pleased with this.

And I was cold. Be assertive - if you're cool at the beginning, your teeth could be chattering by the end (Mine were). By the end, I asked for a blanket before we even set me up.

The preliminary studies to date indicate that this is as effective for early stage tumors as regular rads.