Radiation and Chemotherapy cure or kill please help me scared

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helenelv1944
helenelv1944 Member Posts: 26
edited June 2014 in HER2+ (Positive) Breast Cancer

Radiation and Chemotherapy which i am on for her2 stage 1, grade 3 breast cancer, i am reading so many scary things on Google about Radiation and Chemotherapy

, instead of helping or curing you, it helps give you cancer, kills you faster and who knows what else, is this true?> am i reading this right? 

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  • RMlulu
    RMlulu Member Posts: 1,989
    edited February 2014

    Helen - Breathe!  Stay off MrGoggle...ivegotcancerimgoingtodie !  Do not go there. 

    Read only on this site.  Review your path report, read staging, read chemo, read rads...write down your questions and ask your BC team!  This site has solid info.  Visit your BC center and ask to speak with a oncologist social worker...attend a support group there...see other women who can share, answer questions, and listen.  You will be fine, you can do this...catch your breath, focus on today!

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  • annika12
    annika12 Member Posts: 433
    edited February 2014

    yes it is all so scary !! But two things are proven to KILL cancer and that is chemo and radiation .  I finished chemo and half way done with radiation and doing great , no more cancer in my body!! It is hard but you can do it  and you are not alone !!! Don't Google on the internet , this is a great site with lots of information. Good luck and hang in there

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  • Jan72014
    Jan72014 Member Posts: 7
    edited February 2014

    Hi Helene, these treatments have been refined over the years, and they are very careful now. Radiation really does kill off the cancer cells that are left behind if you have a lumpectomy, or if you have positive lymph nodes. There is a natural level of radiation hitting your body all the time, wherever you are, because it is part of the environment.  Radiotherapy increases this slightly. If you don't have radiotherapy you have a much higher chance of the cancer cells regrowing. Chemotherapy does poison the body to a degree but hits the cancer cells much harder. You can read the actual research that they have done, and can check that it is true if you read the details on this site. And don't pay too much attention  any stories of treatment before 2000 or so, what is available now is much better.

    You will find that well-meaning friends all think they know the best thing for you, but it is generally best to get your information from sites like this one, or from your surgeon and oncologist. Ask lots of questions. Ask them to tell you about the research that has taught them what works and what doesn't work.

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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Member Posts: 99
    edited February 2014

    "instead of helping or curing you, it helps give you cancer, kills you faster and who knows what else, is this true?> am i reading this right?"

    No.  There is overwhelming evidence that chemotherapy and radiotherapy improves your survival prospects (except for very early stage, slower growing cancers where it is much more marginal).

    Of course you will find blogs and websites where unqualified people say all sorts of tosh: conspiracy theories about drug companies, wonder cures from diets.

    T'was ever thus.  

    When syphilis was incurable, there were VD quacks.  When TB was the most common cause of death in younger adults, there were TB quacks.  Although treatable and sometimes curable, cancer still claims many lives and the treatments that really work are unpleasant, so there are cancer quacks.

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