Melanoma caused by radiation treatment

Hi gals, triple negative means you are Estrogen and Progesterone negative, or, in other words, your cancer is not estrogen or progesterone "driven". This is usually considered not so good, as Tamoxifen and the other hormone drugs, are not a lot of help. I believe the third negative is Her2neu, which, and gals, correct if I'm wrong, is a measure of the aggressiveness? Yikes, I should stay out of this arena! Anyway, down below is a "Triple Negative" thread.



The general thinking seems to be that Triple negs are often very aggressive cancers and do not respond to hormone therapy. BUT, if you get to 2 or 3 years out, then they don't recur as often as some other types. Gets mighty confusing! I am a Triple Neg, but at 9 years, I guess that is good.



Hugs, Shirlann

I had an informed consent booklet on radiation and one of the complications was skin melanoma.  They claim it is not common, still....

I refused radiation because of the many possible side effects.  They said they would not be able to avoid hitting the lung.  There is an awful lot they don't emphasize.

I know its way long after you posted this but I wanted to say that I am a Stage 3b breast cancer survivor. had chemo, rads. bilat-Mast with expanders and then implants, and had ovaries and Fallopian tubes and gallbladder out during that time. Plus, tamoxifen, aromasin and aromidex and femara. Four years after treatment I started having probs breathing, my blood levels were always off, and i kept getting sick. Then I had a major pain in my chest and finally after lots of tests and misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis I ended up begging for a ctscan which showed a giant mass in my mediastinum and in my lungs, fluid in my heart and around my lungs, and 3 blood clots. they started me on a very strong chemo regiment for 3 months, thinking it was some sort of metastatic carcinoma. But when test came back, it had spread all over. At this point they sent my pathology to some experts who did geno type on it. It came back that I had a very rare metastatic mediastinal melanoma with no skin involvement. yup! no skin involvement . The majority of the tumors were all in the radiation field of the mold (mask type thing that they put over my chest during rads for my BC. My docs were all baffled how this could happen. They have concluded that it must be from my Radiation therapy for the Breast cancer. I am currently on imunotherapy infusions every other wk for the rest of my life or till my body cant tolerate it any longer, or the cancer spreads rapidly again. At this moment I have a fractured sturnum from the tumor growing so fast right though it. I also have cancer in both lungs, sturnum, possible in my upper gi track, back of skull and possible brain, all lymph nodes, and another new mediastinal tumor, and waiting for bone scans because we suspect also in my buttocks/pelvic/hips. But no, I am not mad I chose to do rads. the breast cancer would have killed me long ago if I chose not to do rads. I just want people to be made aware that this can happen. So be aware. Good luck and prayers always!

I had melanoma before BC (strong family history of melanoma). My oncologist was adamant I not do radiation or chemo (as melanoma's only fighter is your own immune system rather than toxins). Chemo actually would kill my immune system to allow the melanoma to potentially pop up again. They treat melanoma with interferon - which basically bumps up your immune system to the point of it being a superhero and fighting everything (including your own body sometimes). My cousin was on interferon for stage 2 melanoma and she ended up with rheumatoid arthritis her joints were so attacked by her own immune system.

There is also a link between BC and some forms of Melanoma.. BRCA actually is for both cancers as well. There is also an ER+ melanoma.

All things to consider when you are looking at your options.

yes shirlann,

I have wondered... had 1st rads in 2003 then another round on other breast in 2012...2015 I noticed dark lesion on my back...the middle and back height of breast area in front. Same as you was melanoma insitu so they did a wider excision around it. Will never know if rads caused it or not.