Cancer Survivors Network

If you've had a lumpectomy, then radiation is considered a standard part of your treatment plan.

Chemo and radiation have two different purposes: Chemo is to kill any cancer cells that may have escaped from the breast and gone on a little trip through your bloodstream. Radiation is to kill any microscopic cancer cells in the breast that the surgeon may not have been able to see.

Radiation is also sometimes used after mastectomy, though I don't know as much about those situations.

Hope that helps,

Traci

Based on the pathology reports -- the size of the tumor in one area plus one affected lymph node -- I was encouraged to do the chemo and RT, more as a preventative measure, even though the DRs believed they got everything. Before the reports, I already knew I would have to do hormonal therapy.

I would guess that the decision is yours. It depends on whether or not you think it's worth it to you to do chemo and RT. I had 8 infusions (AC & then T) every other week from April to mid-July; I had RT from August through September. Currently I take a hormonal therapy pill, and will for five years.

Based on what the reports indicated, I thought that going through the regimen gave me a better chance at a healthy life afterwards.

I am feeling very good right now, and have for weeks. I got through the chemo and RT with a few challenges, but they were manageable. I realize it's not the same for everyone, though. I think your general health and mental attitude play a lot into that.

Make a decision you won't regret later. As someone told me, after you make a decision, don't second-guess yourself. No one is the same.

Boy, you really hope that chemo has gotten every nasty cell -but it doesn't always. That's why radiation is another line of defense. It is to zap every cell that may still survive after a lumpectomy or mastectomy and chemo. In a small per cent of cases, cancer even survives after these treatments! Many of us take AIs to have an ongoing defense against new cancer growth. xoxoxo Lynn

Chemotherapy is to wipe out cells that are floating around in your blood or lymph and this is a systemic treatment. Radiation is to take care of where the cancer was or is and wipe out the cancer. It is a localized treatment.

You should have both to give yourself the best odds.

Doris

Then that would be a cure - it isn't! THe different types (IBC/IDC/ILC/DCIS/LCIS/rarer forms) are different. ER/PR/Her2 status is different for each of us as is Stage/grade/etc.

Very simplistically as it was explained to me for me - chemo (A/C) neo-adjuvant to try to get it to shrink and form margins so surgeon had a chance of getting it. Then surgery to remove all that surgeon could find. Then another chemo to attack any that was 'floating' around in the lymph system or anywhere. Then rads to re-hit the direct area effected 'just in case'.

Only you can decide what you want to do.

Winyan - The Power Within

Susan

Just wanted to share my little sister's story... She thought radiation was overkill after chemo and hormone therapy cuz she was just stage one. She had a recurrence 5 years later and had radiation and is now on hormone therapy for life.

Yesterday an older friend of mine was talking to me about radiation. Her daughter was one of my best friends, and she succumbed to cancer two years ago this past November. Anyhow, she said to me she has wondered why it was that radiation therapy was never an option suggested to her daughter when she first began her battle. (Her husband has said the same thing.) Val had only one breast removed. She had chemo. That was it. A few years later, the cancer returned -- initially to her bones.

I realize things change over the years, even as far as what DRs do and what they recommend. From what my surgeon was saying today when I mentioned the same thing to him, different DRs have different ideas as to what to do. My friend went to a different hospital, one with a reputable reputation [sounds redundant, doesn't it?] in cancer treatments.

I say this to say that there are many good reasons to go through with the "complete" program, even if its purpose is preventative.

e