Radiation Post Mastectomy due to age and micromet

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Honey2289
Honey2289 Member Posts: 5
edited February 2020 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After

I met with an RO today for the first time and I seem to be in another "gray" area. I'm 31 yrs old and was diagnosed with breast cancer in Sept 2019. I tested negative for all known gene mutations. I've had a double mastectomy and the final pathology showed a 2.5cm tumor and a .5mm micromet in 1 of 3 lymph nodes and clear margins. My mammaprint came back as high risk so I'm currently doing 6 cycles of TC. I've already completed 4 out of 6 and have been tolerating it very well, including keeping my hair with cold capping.

My breast surgeon and multiple medical oncologists assured me that I would not need radiation so I was suprised to get a "soft" recommendation for radiation . The RO mostly recommended radiation due to my age.

On one hand, I'm young and want to do everything to prevent a local or regional recurrence. On the other hand, I worry about long term side effects from radiation and increased risk for capsular contracture with my implant. I also feel like I'm a lot already! 6 cycles of chemo and I'll be doing an aromatase inhibitor and zoladex injections for 5-10 years after chemo ends.

Would love to hear what others think - I'm so torn!

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  • Cpeachymom
    Cpeachymom Member Posts: 518
    edited February 2020

    Hi Honey- I can’t answer this for you, but I can say that I also hit all the gray areas and had conflicting opinions from doctors. I know that if I had done chemo, I sure as hell wouldn’t have done rads. Too many looonngg term SEs, especially after mastectomy as opposed to lumpectomy. Ask how much of your lungs will be in the radiation field. Ask about your thyroid if they’re doing your nodes. Keep in mind, the RO is recommending doing what ROs do- radiate.

    In the end, you have to make the decision that you can live with. All the choices suck. It is great that chemo is going so well for you though, Good luck!

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  • OCDAmy
    OCDAmy Member Posts: 873
    edited February 2020

    I had BMX, chemo and rads due to positive lymph node. Rads is way easier than chemo and I have had no lingering side effects. I got rads With the TE and decided to have DIEP after to avoid capsular contracture. Best of luck in making your decision.

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  • Honey2289
    Honey2289 Member Posts: 5
    edited February 2020

    Cpeachymom Thank you for your response! Many good points I'll definitely be following up on. It's so hard being in a gray area.

    OCDAmy Thank you! I'm expecting rads to be easier than chemo - I was just hoping to be done by March and now it's looking much longer :( Glad you did well with rads!

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  • Floral
    Floral Member Posts: 41
    edited February 2020

    I asked my RO, I had one micromet and had a BMX, why do radiation if I am doing antihormone, shouldn’t the medication take care of the whole mess? He said radiation is better for a group of cells while chemo/antihormones work for single cells. I don’t know if he’s right or not. But certainly many people get both, so there must be some reason. According to him, radiation is actually far better at killing cancer cells than the medications.

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