what does exit place mean?

icey

Hi Ladis, Excuse me for being total ignorant about this but what does exit place mean? I read a post saying to put alovera on the back if you are having the lymphnodes radiated. I am just having the breast radiated next month so is there an exit place for this? Someone enlighten me please. Icey

NancyD

The radiation beam doesn't stop at the tumor area. It continues through your body and exits at another point. It seemed to me that it went directly through, especially if it is a very tightly focused beam. Ask the rad tech or rad onc about the trajectory of the beam. They should be able to give you a ballpark exit area.

Bren-2007

http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/radiation/types/ext/

Hi Icey ... Try the above link from this site.

It shows a picture of how the radiation beams travel across our body.  In my case, there were two different fields.  My left breast was treated.  The beams traveled from upper right down across the left and lower left up across the right.  There is an exact location for the beams.  This is called your radiation prescription.  The exact location of the beams are figured by a physicist and programmed into the machine. 

My rad onc showed me how the beams will travel.  I used Aquafor, Benadryl lotion and Aloevera on the radiated breast. 

Best of luck to you,

Bren

Suzanne3131

Wow ~ I did not know about exit point.  I now often get pain and tightness under my shoulder blade on the right side...maybe that's one of my exit points?

redsox

If you are having whole breast fields only, then the radiation beam exits on the other side of the breast.  Exit points are not an issue in that case, although the field may cover more area than you expect especially under the arm . 

The issue of exit points comes with treatment of nodal (e.g. supraclavicular or internal mammary) fields or perhaps chest wall (post-mastectomy) fields.

It is a good idea to ask the rad onc exactly what areas you should cover with lotion.

Leah_S

The "exit point" I had on my back was from the supravclavicular nodeal rads. The beam went straight down near my clavicle, so I had burning on the top of my back. The beams directed to my skin/chest wall were not straight but sideways (tangential) so there was no exit point.

Leah