Radiation Treatment YES or NO

Beatka
I understand and you have no idea how mad I am with myself about doing radiation. I was in pain for 19-20 months. Doctors ignored it, only my family doctor told me that he has no idea what to do. Maybe because we are from the same country.
I resolved that problem with my funny anti-cancer diet and I hope that it will not come back in any form. What I am saying quality of life and length of life is not the same. Due to our awesome Canadian health care I`m out of cancer circle of care, only our family doctor is available. And if anything start again, with their speed (making appointment with cancer doctor), it will be too late for anything.
And frankly I would preferred life without doctors appointments and tests and waiting time and more radiation....

My herbalist/acupuncturist is my husband and that time I could not get straight answer from him, what he will be doing. After I said yes and he order "anti-radiation herbs", he finally answered me "I will never let them do it to me".

During radiation I was taking 12g of vit C, 3x 400 IU of vit E, B-komplex, some vit D, royal jelly with ginseng and herb formula specially prepared for me. Only side effect was hip pain and poor doctor couldn't understand.

Good luck with your decision, it is really up to you.
Jana

Questions regarding radiation
Hello Bea:

I was diagnosed with Grade 2 Stage ii/iiia endo adenocarcinoma back in 2005. All washings and everything were negative after my staging surgery. I did do chemo as a precaution. My gyn/onc wanted me to have both pelvic radiation and bracy radiation. My radiation onc advised against the pelvic saying that the risks outweighed the benefits. So I ended up with just three treatments of bracy radiation back in August of 2006.

Recently, they thought I had a recurrence and wanted me to have chem. I changed doctors and then they wanted me to have radiation. Once you have radiation to a certain area, you can no longer have it. I would ask the doctor if that is the same for you. I did not have either. I went to another doctor who did surgery and found everything to be negative!

The chemo they wanted me to take (even as a preventative) was Taxol. I was allergic to that so I took a lesser one, Gemzar (you don't lose your hair).

The doctors are not sure of the long term effects of radiation. Just ask them. Some problems associated with brachy is a build up of scarring or bowel blockages later on.

I hope this give you some insight on what to ask your doctors.

Kathy

What to do?
I never had the option of no radiation or chemo as conversed with both oncologists (chemo & radia). I'm 3C with a more aggressive cancer in the uterus but it was found in 1 pelvic lymph node to be a lesser type cancer. My doc explained that during total hysterectomy that can "assume" he pulled the best 24 lymph nodes to test and didn't see any other cancer lerking. To be on safe side they setup for chemo first to zap all over and in middle 33 sessions of pelvic, external radiation and ended with 3 more rounds of chemo. Explained to me that since only cancer found was in the 1 pelvic node they needed to be more aggressive on that area with radiation. I followed their leads as both were on same page.

I will say the radiation left some pelvic pain which now understanding possibly arthritis, but believe me it's not that bad.....btw I'm approached 12 months since last treatment and NED today. Before the treatments started I had a bone density that showed thinning at head of hip area, which is most likely this pain area now.

No one can tell you what to do, but we can relay our cancer diagnosis and the treatments our docs recommended and then our side affects.

My doc told me if I didn't have cancer in pelvic area most likely wouldn't need ANY TREATMENTS.

Best to you in your decision...
Jan

daisy366 said:

decision
Chester (my new reference to the disease I as diagnosed with in Sept 2008) was UPSC stage 3a - aggressive and rare type of endometrial cancer. I had 6 rounds of carbo/taxol and then scans to determine next course of treatment.

Re: radiation. My doc did not recommend. It's interesting because I actually lost my first gyn-onc when he moved out of the area. He told me he would recommend radiation. But I was transferred to the head of the practice who is very respected in this field and he said "the science didn't warrant radiation for me". Don't know exactly what would have made him say yes - but I figured he knows what he is doing and so far I think that was the best thing. I read stories of bad recurrence with people who had all the aggressive treatment with the thinking that they are killing every last cancer cell only to have it come back viciously NO MATTER THE STAGE!!!!! Even stage 1!!

So my crap shoot theory holds. Maybe it's all "luck" or intuition, or a flip of the coin. Don't know!!

My doc is clearly recommending the least harmful treatment for me - allowing my body to heal and me to tell him if something is different. I think this approach makes sense. He wants me to "forget" about Chester and enjoy life. So I'm doing my best with this.

For the last 2 months I have eaten the "anticancer" way. I have lost weight (good loss) and feel great. Hopefully, like Claudia, I will make my body inhospitable to Chester and any of his buddies!!

Best wishes to you and all. Sisterhood!! Mary Ann

In my case, while a surgical
In my case, while a surgical stage 1C (I was diagnosed in 1999 under the old staging system--under the recently revised system I would be a stage 1B), my gyn-onc recommended radiation for several reasons. First, my tumor was deeply invasive, having penetrated more than 80% of my myometrium or uterine muscle wall. Second, I had extensive lymph-vascular space invasion. Third, my tumor arose in the lower uterine segment. Fourth, I had a fairly large tumor, approximately 4 cm.

So my take on this subject is that you can't just look at the stage of the cancer as a barometer for whether it is in your best interests to get radiation. You can have a more advanced stage without having all those risk factors for local or regional recurrence, or you can be a lower stage with significant risk factors for local or regional recurrence, such as in my case. Interestingly, a number of my risk factors are not even reflected in either the old or new staging systems, but were listed on my surgical pathology report, and formed the basis for my gyn-onc's radiation recommendation.

So it is important to know precisely why your gyn-onc is recommending radiation. I would also want to know what your gyn-onc thinks your chances of recurrence are with and without the radiation. I would also want to know what the impact of radiation might be on any other existing health issues you might have.

As far as your concerns about the effects of radiation, you can find stories about people who sailed through radiation and stories about people who had a variety of problems. It all depends on which stories you want to focus on. There are simply no guarantees in life about anything. Some people take medication and have no side effects, others have major side effects. I finished internal and external radiation in August 1999. We usually take our vacation around Labor Day. I thought I would be sitting on the porch in a rocking chair for the week. Needless to say, I was able to do and eat anything I wanted by that time.

Best of luck to you.

Maureen

clscurnutt said:

I can't tell you how much I
I can't tell you how much I empathize with your dilemma. I, too, had the same feelings as you do about radiation treatment. It went against everything in my being. I cried about it. I read articles on the internet about it. I got angry about it. I didn't care for my radiation oncologist. I was a mess. My internist even gave me some sample anti-depressant medication if I needed it.

I went ahead with the treatment. Each day I would try to buck up and be positive. Then the stupid machine would start the buzzing around my body. I came to hate the sound with a passion. There were times I would start crying while the treatment was going on. The technicians were wonderful, though. ( I need to remember to tell them how grateful I am for them the next visit to the clinic) Some days were better than others.

I am not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination. But I am spiritual. What gets me through it all is faith in myself. Faith that I can put my body in the hands of others who were truly doing the best they can for me. I still carry that faith that I can get through anything that comes up. I still worry about the long-term effects the radiation may have on my body. But I cant' dwell on it (wellllll... maybe some days when I need a pity party).

Life is precious. You have to make your own decision. Whatever you decide, stay as healthy as possible. Eat better. Face each new day as a gift. You are so in my thoughts right now.

Lynn
Never give up! Never surrender!

Thank you for sharing your
Thank you for sharing your experience. I learned today that I will need both chemo and radiation. Still trying to absorb it all. Any suggestions on reading material?

bea-mil said:

My decision
I had finally made my decision. NO radiation treatment for me, at least not now. I’ll keep you girls updated how I’m doing. And thank you so much for those who responded and helped with my decision.

Bea
congratulation and again where are you from (I know from Canada, but originally?)

RoseyR said:

Your Hip Pain

Culka,

YOu say your only effect of radiation was some hip pain. Do you still live with it--and how bad is it? Ostensibly from the radiation? (I need to make a decision this week about how much radiation to have.)

Thanks,
Rosey R.

Rosey
I left message for you on long-term side effects.

No I don't have pain there any more, but muscles on my but are still tender. I guess I will have to repeat fast again.