Radiation/chemo

Hi chevygirl,

Invasive cancer cells can escape the tumor through the bloodstream. Even with clear lymph nodes and clear margins, one of the cancer cells that may have escaped can come back in a different part of the patient's body (or metastasizes). This happened to my mother. Even with a very small Stage I tumor, no lymph node involvement and clear margins, the cancer came back in her bones. This is why you need chemo - it is a systemic treatment that prevents cancer from coming back both in your remaining breasts, as well as somewhere else in your body (although, of course, there are no guarantees even with systemic treatment). The radiation is necessary to kill off any stray cells left in the breast after a lumpectomy, as the chance of stray cancer cells remaining in the breast is higher with a lumpectomy than a mastectomy. (A lumpectomy and a mastectomy are equivalent only when radiation is added to a lumpectomy; otherwise, a mastectomy would be performed. Also, to avoid confusion, some mastectomy patients must still have radiation in certain circumstances). I hope this helps.