Is radioactive seed localization safe?

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willbefine
willbefine Member Posts: 19
edited April 2015 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

This is pre surgical procedure which makes your surgeon localize the abnormal area during surgery. The seed is radioactive. I am concern this thing that will be inserted in my breast a couple of days before surgery. Who had this experience or heard of stories about it? Is it safe ? I am worried about this. Thank you.

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  • willbefine
    willbefine Member Posts: 19
    edited April 2015

    Any lady knows this? Then how did you get lump localized before lumpectomy ? I really need know about this because I otherwise may choose traditional way wire localization (any other method? ) . It almost been 2 months since this bad thing detected,need surgery done asap. Thank you very much for any info.

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited April 2015

    Hi willbefine. Welcome to Breastcancer.org. We're sorry you have to be here for this reason, but glad you found us! Hopefully soon you'll have responses from other members sharing their own experiences and advice here that we hope will help you make your decision.

    Best wishes,

    The Mods

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  • Leighrh
    Leighrh Member Posts: 317
    edited April 2015


    I had a lumpectomy with this done.  They placed the seeds the day before surgery for me.  It's a little uncomfortable having it done... just because you have to have scans done to make sure they are in the right place and they come back and move the seeds.. then do another scan... But it is not painful.  It is radioactive and YOU are technically radioactive while they are in. They tell you not to pick up or hold close babies but that's about all the restriction you have.  As far as I am concerned it was safe... safer than that cancerous tumor.  To me it was really no big deal.  Once they were in I couldn't feel a thing and didn't really think about it.

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited April 2015

    As we don't have yet have information on our site on this, you may want to see what other treatment centers have written about this procedure e.g from.Memorial Sloan Kettering

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  • willbefine
    willbefine Member Posts: 19
    edited April 2015

    Thank you very much ladies!

    Dear leighrh, the seeds? you mean they inserted more than one seed just for localization before the surgery? how many? you are brave, maybe I think too much, I don't know.

    Dear Mods, this is very new technology which is the reason why I can't find much research and data on it. I know MSK do that but don't know how many patients accept this.

    Anyway, this procedure probably decides where I will do the surgery.

    Others, please give more comments if you have. Thank you!

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  • Luckydog42
    Luckydog42 Member Posts: 51
    edited April 2015

    I had a radioactive seed placed and I highly recommend it. During my mastectomy, the surgeon had to perform an excisional biopsy on my healthy breast (like a lumpectomy, but small because it requires no clean margins). I had read about some of the women on this board having nightmares from the wire replacement. There is no way I could have had wires placed before the surgery and not pass out. I was very happy when the surgeon told me that since I was the first surgery scheduled in the morning, there would not be enough time to have a wire placement. My surgery was scheduled Monday morning. I had the seed placed Friday. I needed just one seed.

    I hate needles and I really hated the three biopsies I went through before my surgery. However, the seed placement was a piece of cake. You get the two shots in the breast to numb it, the doctor locates the clip from the earlier biopsy on the mammogram machine, then inserts the seed. The doctor then takes another look on the machine to make sure it is in the right location (it was). I walked out of there with just a regular Band-Aid, and I only felt the two shots; no other pain. My prior biopsies all left scars and one bled non-stop for 10 days. So, recovery was a piece of cake compared to a biopsy. I went to work straight from the seed placement.

    I read a lot on the internet about certain university hospitals using the radioactive seeds. Some use it to treat cancer, hoping the seed will kill off cancer around it. Like previous poster said, you just don't want to hold or hug a baby while you have this. I had it in my body for 3 days since the surgery was Monday morning. Most have it placed the day prior. I was told it is safe but you shouldn't have it in your body for more than 5 days.

    From what I've read (and again, I was reading material posted on university hospital websites), some places are thinking of using radioactive seeds to replace the wires. They say that the seeds are more accurate for surgeons to find the tumors during surgery. They wave a device over the breast to locate the radioactive seed. I really hope that is the trend in the future to use radioactive seeds instead of wire placements.

    If I ever had to have a lumpectomy in the future, I would insist on having a radioactive seed.

    If you are worried about being radioactive around others, then keep 3 feet away. I have two young boys and I just told them that mommy couldn't hug them or cuddle them until after my surgery.

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