Has anyone turned down radiation?

I refused the rads over and over again until my friends and family drove me up a wall to do it.i waited soooo long that there were no statistics that the rads would work.BUT !!!!! i did it.I absolutely refused the meds for 5 yrs.that shit has S/E that i just will not accept.Hey Im 70 yrs old.and if i take any of the meds i have a 2% chance of living another 5 yrs.are you kidding me.!!!!!!!

If i had the choice right now to do the rads again I WOULD DO IT. sure there are S/E.everything has S/E.with bc its chose your poison....

i wish all of you the best in your decisions.its a real tough call.God bless all of us fighting this giant monster.K

Granny almost done my rads...3 more boosts...........;then its on to the Pill that kills.......................I like you don't want to take it.........I'm 76, and with the LE, do I really need more shit to make me miserable............don't think so...................Script is in[ the drawer since I was told not to take it till rads are done........................3days,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and I am dead serious I don't want to take it..............I would rather have 5 years with no more pain then what I have from old age.............then 10 years in misery...............my RO said "try it, you did so well with Rads, maybe you will do well with this too............if it is too hard on you....stop it....the SE go away almost immediately...............huge decision.............

According to the study reported by the BCO research reporters, radiation provided no overall survival value.

"There was no difference in overall survival in either trial between women who had radiation treatment and women who did not."

http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/radiation/new_research/20060217a.jsp  

mathteacher: you're quite right, but there are two things to consider: recurrance and survival. The radiation DID reduce the recurrance.

Some women are very concerned about recurrance and want to be sure the @($! cancer doesn't come back. Others are willing to accept some risk.  

I am not sure about the 10% benefit... That is not what I have been told at all... I have heard that unless you have DCIS, radiation will help with recurrance  and for DCIS is of no value... So for anyone with invasive cancer, radiation is of benefit, and can improve your odds 30-40%... For ME, i still chose to forgo the rads and have a MX instead.

What to do with regard to treatment is an individual treatment depends on a lot of things.........type of cancer, choice of surgeries, age, (which is very important), how agressive it is...........this doesn't just go for Rads, its the whole treatment.............I am 76.........I was told (by my MO) that studies say I do not need rads..............My RO completely disagreed with her..........I went with the Rads..............I have not had any problems..........of course some redness..............rash.......a few tiny blisters (not a problem), and a tiny bit of irritation under a tiny part of my underarm..................I had 28 treatments with 8 boosts.............I will be done in 3  days.................Keep in mind also..............right breast lumpectomy with Rads, is not as concerning as left side..............with the left there is more involvement of heart and lung..............I would never tell someone what to do, but for me Rads was a walk in the park.............I am not going to worry about 10 years from now.......if I live 10 more years , that is one hell of a bonus ...............Now on the other side...............I don't want hormone therapy............that to me is a killer....................I don't need to have hot flashes (never had them),, or more joint pain..............(already have that),....................so my problem is not with the Rads .........it has always been with the SE of AI's which is what they want me to do (Femara)....................have that decision to make in 3 days when I'm done Rads..............

Good luck to all, whatever you choose...............in the end .........its a crap shoot........and anyone who tells you different is "lying" to you .

I sill bd going down this decision path soon. Right now I'm in chemo.



I had a lumpectomy back in April. I opted for a new procedure called IORT which is internal radiation right at the tumor site for 30 minutes once the tumor is removed. The probe radiates approx 2 cm beyond the tumor site in a 360 degree direction.



That would have been all the radiation I required, however, after path, I fell out of protocol as my tumor was upgraded in size to just over 2 cm. Going over 2 cm means the rad onc wants me to have the standard whole breast radiation, but I do not require the boost as that was satisfied with the IORT.



I am already dealing with painful cording, that I fear will turn into le. I'm being assessed tomorrow. I was hoping to forgo the whole breast rads as I worry about recon options if I require them in the future.



So far I haven't met with the rad onc, but they have called a number of times to find out when my chemo is over. I need to understand the risks associated with rads. I feel that since I had a high level of rads directly at tumor site, which does penetrate surrounding tissue, external may not give me much of a benefit over what I've already had.



I did mention to both the bs and the rad onc that I am considering a mx as I don't want external rads. My cancer is on my left side. They keep saying, don't go mx, but hey, I don't want the extra rads!

Mathteacher... I do understand what you are saying and I read the thread... at the same time, I feel that if I can gain a few % from one treatment and a few % from another treatment, then I need to consider my options... When it came to radiation, I knew to improve my odds of no recurrance, I needed to choose something (either rads of MX) and take ALL aspects into consideration and thus chose MX.

As for tamoxifen, I will take it because I am highly ER/PR + and really have no choice... But I do realize that a treatment, any treatment, they come with risks and we have to weigh the benefit and the risks FOR YOURSELVES and for me I chose MX after weighing everything. Of course I could have MX complications and regret that, but if I chose radiation and had a recurrance I would be super upset that I hadn't had the MX... its all what we can live with I guess.

Joanne... I have a question about timing... You had the MX in September and just recently met with RO?? Or you met with the RO back then? I have been told that radiation has a window of opportunity and can't be done at a later date....

I turned down radiation, and I think that was one of the smartest choices for me ever in my life!

feel free to pm me if anyone wants to know my story

Rads didnt make sense to me, neither did Tamo. However that is because my cancer had a very low iq, short bus low grade idiotic non organized cancer. If it would have been stage 2 or grade 2 or 3 I would have thought differently, but for me those treatments seemed very over the top.

They really push the rads though and I had to stand my ground and go with my gut. Not easy to do when they are telling you a bunch of stuff to sway you the other way. 

i have always had a problem with authority figures like doctors. I am always too nervous to speak up and ask for different op wish I was more knowledgeable about my DCIS and the different treatments for it. I wasnt really ever offered any choices in my surgery or treatments. They pretty much said this is what you have, this is your surgery date, this is the type of radiation treatment you will get and this is what you are going to do, etc. I was never told of any different options for my care. And now I feel like I am stuck doing 6 weeks of rads despite the distance i have to travel and lack of REAL solid family support to help me get through it....when there is no 100% proof or certainty that my DCIS would have or will become invasive cancer yet some other women who have had or do have invasive cancers only have to do 2-3 weeks of rads. Wouldnt it stand to reason if 2-3 weeks of rads for invasive cancer works for those women, that doing 2-3 weeks for DCIS would ALSO work  without having some 10 yr long study before allowing women to have that option ? I am sorry if I am not explaining myself or my point well...its just so very aggravating to have doctors get me scared stiff that I HAVE cancer and need all this surgery and treatment , and then have Dr. Anderson tell me yesterday  that "technically you DONT have cancer"...thats "its ONLY pre-cancer".....regardless of it being ACTUAL cancer or not I am being subjected to the same types of surgery and tamoxifen and in a lot of cases MORE radiation to my body then many women who have ACTUAL cancer have to undergo. Shouldnt I be offered some REAL options with studies to back up WHY the doctor is recommending the treatment, instead of just telling me basically this is the standard protocol because no one has taken the time to come up with or study forms of less invasive treatments for DCIS ?  I am feeling tremendously overwhelmed right now at this point in my life in general and then having to undergo 6 weeks of radiation and driving ALONE 3 hours everyday to get it and that it may or may not do me any good because there is no proof my pre-cancer would have turned invasive and risking the possibility of actually getting REAL cancer because of the radiation and tamoxifen....its just all too much for me to take I think...but they have used scare tactics on me and now I fear that if i dont follow through with their standard protocol I will end up getting real invasive cancer....so i dont know what I am supposed to do right now...I feel so angry and so lost and so trapped into a treatment regimen that I dont know if I mentally/emotionally can follow through alone. Damnit why cant there be an in person support group in my town instead of way over in Madison.

bluewillow...............Trust and faith in your Dr.s means everything.............I am assuming you had no where to get a second opinion?.................that would have been your next option................you can find out a whole lot by researching your diangosis on the computer.............I got a wealth of information there.

I am fortunate that I had the best I could have asked for through this whole ordeal........we all deal with ups and downs going through this ......I had 36 Rads, and finished yesterday ..........I don't regret it, at least not now..............will I in the future, who knows, I just know at the present time I did what I thought I had to do to assure my survival.................Do any of us really know which decision is the right one..................you can only do what seems at the time to be the best choice, and hope it was........................If you have to "cry", "cry", but don't get too overwhelmed with all of it...................don't let cancer get the best of you ...............Fight like hell, and be your own advocate.................and remember.......................all those Dr.'s put their pants on "one leg at a time" just like we do.......................ASk all the questions you need to ask, and if your not satisfied with the answers, ask again, until you understand exactly what is going on..............A good Dr. will respect som'eone who has their own interest at heart.............remember this is your body , no one elses, and you are the keeper of it ...................never let anyone tell you what you can and can't do with your own body .................good luck, and come back often............the ladies here are wonderful...............they all helped me through my journey with cancer......hugs to you

The study Mathteacher referenced earlier only applies to post-menopausal women with small, ER+ and/or PR+, node negative tumors. They had a very low risk of decreased survival due to BC in the first place. And even that study says they benefit from radiation (in terms of recurrence.)

However, for those of us who don't fit that study population because we are ANY of the following:

* pre-menopausal

* tumor larger than 3 cm

* node-positive

* hormone-receptor negative 

Radiation might also offer a survival benefit. For specifics, see the study I posted above. 

dougbrimor, there's an alternative medicine section right below this one. You'll find lots of people there who've been involved in some sort of alternative/holistic treatment.