What happens after radiotherapy

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mandm43
mandm43 Member Posts: 4
edited June 2014 in Stage III Breast Cancer

I am in the middle of 25 sessions of radiotherapy after my mastectomy on right side. The area they are treating is big, extending from above the collar bone down below where the breast was and across to my back. This is meant to be preventative as all my lymph nodes under the are were taken out. My oncologist had told me that I shouldn't need 6 monthly scans unless there's a problem, I think because my cancer was lobular and hard to spot on scans. I don't know if I need to have any scans immediately after the radiotherapy. Has anyone else gone through a similar situation?

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  • inks
    inks Member Posts: 746
    edited June 2014


    I had 28 radiation treatments after mastectomy and was told no scans unless I have symptoms. My docs said that routine scans do not increase survival. But it seems to me that "everyone else and their mother" are getting a bunch of scans and bloodtests even at stage I, confusing.

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  • mary625
    mary625 Member Posts: 1,056
    edited June 2014

    I finished radiation and while one would think that at the end of treatment it would be a good idea to get a scan to make sure it worked, alas that is not a part of ASCO's guidelines and it doesn't happen in the U.S. very often.  I finagled my way into a scan by pointing out a comment in the original scan stating that there should be follow up on a ground glass nodule (benign).  However, since that involved the lungs, I only got the chest area scanned in the CT.  That was enough though to make me feel more confident because it noted that the previous lymph node activity was gone.  

    There are a few doctors--few and far between--who will scan.  I consulted one in fall 2013, two years after diagnosis, and got clean scans.  I had to travel.  I've got another onc where my son lives, and there I can get tumor markers, as well as zoledronic acid (can't remember the brand name) that I can't get with the oncs in my area.  

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited June 2014

    As others have said, it depends on the doc and hospital. My follow-up did involve scans, but at the 1- and 2-year mark from surgery. I also had scans before starting treatment (to make sure I was not stage 4, but also to have as a baseline). My doc did the post-treatment scans exactly to make sure the treatment "worked." According to him, recurrence within 2 years of treatment is considered treatment failure and is a somewhat different beast than recurrence that happens later.

    In addition, my doc does a full blood panel, with tumor markers, before each visit. Now that I am into year 3 from surgery, we will not scan anymore (unless warranted by symptoms), but we will do a chest X-ray (cheap and minimally invasive) as well as a liver U/S annually. The full blood panel is not only to look for signs of cancer. It is also to make sure that I am tolerating the femara OK. Femara can raise cholesterol, raise glucose and cause fatty liver. 

    I get the argument against the scans. They are expensive, quite toxic, and for all the high-tech, they can't see everything. I do think, however, that ultrasound could be used more as part of follow-up and monitoring. I also think that it is downright irresponsible not to do basic blood panels fairly regularly. A good doc can learn a lot from simple blood tests.

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  • mandm43
    mandm43 Member Posts: 4
    edited June 2014

    Thanks everyone that's very interesting. It sounds like the policies on scans are pretty global, it sounds similar to Australia anyway

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