Radiation confusion

Did you have a lumpectomy? If so, the "standard of care" for lumpectomy is surgery + radiation. Radiation is intended to reduce the risk of a local recurrence (cancer coming back in the same area of the breast as the original tumor). Hormone therapy prevents estrogen from stimulating cancer cell growth in the breasts, while chemotherapy is aimed at cancer cells that may have migrated to other areas of the body. Hope that helps?

Happy to hear you got the ultimate Oncotype score!

Hey Dreamer,

What a great oncotype. Mine was 7. However, the oncotype is only for telling us and the doctors if chemo would be beneficial. Really doesn't do anything for the radiation treatment or hormonal therapy. I just started radiation today. 5 mins and done. I am only having 16 treatments. So 1/16 done. Yeah. It really isn't so bad. They want to track your skin progression for deterioration. I would guess the pictures are for that, however, what a mess up on the tech's part. I would think that they would have more then one camera in the whole department. I would tell them that taking on there personal device is not acceptable at all, unless they gave you written verification that the pictures are veritably deleted and only used for your chart.

Good luck on your treatments, you got this. Easier than surgery.

Hi there. Dreamer54540-

Welcome to BCO! That really is a great oncotype, but we're sorry to hear about the picture mishap! That is quite strange, and certainly not very professional. We hope it all gets cleared up on Monday and you're able to get set up with your radiation treatment!

The Mods

Hi Hopeful,

Thanks for the clarification, and I agree that the effects of hormone therapy are not limited to the breasts. I should have been more specific in what I wrote because I was thinking specifically of Tamoxifen, which is intended to be a selective estrogen receptor blocker for the breasts, as opposed to AI's which target estrogen production from sources other than the ovaries. I think it is important to note that Tamoxifen is not active systematically in the same fashion everywhere in the body; my understanding is that while it blocks estrogen receptors in breast cells, it does not do so in uterine or bone cells and can actually stimulate these cells.

Dance

All I had to hear was that radiation would cut my probability of recurrence in half and it was an easy decision to make. The process itself isn't bad at all--just a pain to have to go five days a week. The appointments are very quick. My skin never got too bad and I only had fatigue a couple of days. Many women tolerate radiation extremely well--I wouldn't worry about it.

I had a lumpectomy on 10/3, margins were clear, lymph nodes were clear. I started my radiation on November 8th. had radiation on the 8th and 9th. On the 12th, machine was down, so that week I had 4 treatments. The week of the 19th, I only had 3 treatments because cancer apparently takes the holidays off. This week, I had treatments on Monday and Tuesday, and the machine was down (again) Wednesday and today. I am extremely concerned that the effectiveness of the radiation will be greatly reduced given the sporadic treatments. Any thoughts?

Hi Yarn612-

Oh, that is very frustrating! Like Alice mentioned, the frequency isn't as important as the number of treatments you complete. Hopefully the machine issues are resolved quickly, so that you may finish up your treatment!

The Mods

I was told that as long as any missed sessions are tacked on at the end, there would be no problem. I think really long breaks are discouraged, however.

I had my lumpectomy in early July and re-excision in early August, and didn't start rads until late October, due to another surgery in September that needed more recovery time. I was told that radiation should start within 3 months of the latest breast surgery, so I was okay going from re-excision on August 8th to starting rads October 29th - but I was pretty sore still from my other surgery the first few weeks of radiation, and probably acted rather unpleasant a few times. Woopsie.

Dreamer - if it helps, I'm 26 out of 30 radiation sessions completed and I barely have any side effects. The radiologist even commented to me today how well I'm faring, so it's absolutely possible to skate through this just fine. I completely understand the anxiety and fear... please know there are a lot of us that get through this with little to no side effects. Lotion a lot! I use 100% pure aloe vera gel and miaderm.

RE: why you need radiation, if you did a lumpectomy, they do radiation to get at any cancer cells that might be remaining in the area, localized to the breast (and nodes if needed). Then the hormone therapy is to try and 'mop up' any cancer cells in the body outside the local area where the tumor was, so that they don't gather and become another lump and to prevent metastases.

That's how it was explained to me anyways and via research, the surgery took care of the initial tumor, the radiation and hormone therapy is there to prevent a recurrence.