Is Radiation Harmful

Yes, it is harmful but it wouldn't kill cancer cells if it wasn't.

The radiation scared me too. That is one reason that I chose a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy with rads. I live in Key West so I get a lot of sun and I had already had a mastectomy on my other side. When I had to option of the lumpectomy and rads, the doctors that I discussed my case with stated that without rads there was a 50% chance of the cancer coming back. I don't know if that is correct but it made my decision for me.

You can decide not to do rads. You are allowed to just say no. The problem is that if the cancer came back, would you blame yourself for not having rads?

I didn't have rads but many women say that they are very doable. I was scared because I am in a support group with other cancer patients, not all of them breast cancer. One had rads 20 years ago (older technology I'm sure) and recently has heart issues due to rads. One of the women had rads to the side of her face and now her jaw bone is disinegrating. Scary stuff!

There are just no good solutions to cancer treatment. Wish I could help you but you have to decide this on your own. Lumpectomy with rads is definately protocol.

Modern radiotherapy has fewer risks than therapy 15 or 20 years ago.  Consult with a radiation oncologist who will be able to explain the new ways of targeting the tumor and exposing the heart and lungs to much less radiation.

Good luck whatever course you take.

Pam 

I am relatively new to this website and sadly didn't find till I'd finished treatment.  It took about 10 months to get thru chemo/radiation.  In my case they found a tiny tumor but it was extremely aggressive and a lot of node involvement.  My treatment plan was high density dosing chemo (4 A/C, 4 T), followed by 35 days of daily radiation and just began Arimidex for 5 years.

The radiation oncolgist explained everything prior to starting.  Once they do start it goes pretty fast and most days I was in and out in less than a half hour.  Radiation causes weak bones (as does Arimidex) and also they have to be very careful about the angle of the beam near organs.  I asked a question of the radiation tech one day and she said that there is no absolute in radiation, each person has a plan tailored specifically for them.  After a CT scan,  a physicist and dosimetrist work out your individual plan to determine the angle of the beams, how many sessions are needed w/o the beam being as far from the heart or lungs as they can adjust.      

As for radiation itself, I can tell you that from my experience (and those of 2 other women there) we'd all just finished chemo and we all found that there was little problem till about the 29th or 30th day.  It's about what doctor said would happen which is that about week 3.5 those with fairer skin would begin to see/feel effects, others about a week later.  My radiation was 29 multi angled beams and 6 "boost" sessions.  Boost just means that they stop multi angle radiation and concentrate beam only directly to the area your initial tumor was found to focus on that particular area.

The last week of and the week after treatment ended were pretty rough but between chemo and radiation, except for those two weeks, chemo was rougher in my opinion.   Good luck in whatever you choose.