pre-op rads and what does rads do, anyway

Anonymous · December 2009

I have a basic question. What do rads do? I know the benefit-reduce chance of recurrence,- but how do they do it? Are they meant to actually "kill" any cancer cells hanging around?

I had pre-op rads but still ended up with 6 positive nodes. Shouldnt the rads have killed everything in there?

NativeMainer · December 2009

Radiation damages all the tissues it touches. Cancerous cells are not able to repair themselves and die. Normal cells, can repair some of the damage and survive. The rads you got may not have been set up to hit the lymph nodes, but you should have been told if they were or not, since rads to the lymph nodes puts a woman at risk for lymphedema and she hast o take precautions the rest of her life on that arm. Even if the rads covered the nodes, the pathologists will still see the dead cancer cells. By the time a pathologist sees the tissue it's all dead, so there's now way to know if the cancer cells were dead before surgery or died after.

rreynolds1 · December 2009

The pre-op rads may have been to shrink the tumor and may not have been targeted towards your lymph nodes. They may not have known whether or not your lymph nodes were positive until they were removed and tested during surgery. Are you having chemo? If so, the plan is that the chemo will kill any cells wandering around. The rads works locally in the breast and also on the nodes if directed that way. NativeMainer did a great job of explaining how it works.

NativeMainer, Where are you in ME? I was just up there from CT in Aug. We go to Bar Harbor.

Roseann

Anonymous · December 2009

Thanks ladies,

I think they did hit my lymph nodes as I am stage 3 and i go everything in the recipe book. I think I will book an appointment with my rad onc and ask her these questions. Appreciate the information from both of you.

pre-op rads and what does rads do, anyway

Comments

Categories