Out of interest, how long did you have to wait between surgery and the start of radiotherapy treatments? I had a single mastectomy on August 22nd, saw the oncologist on 8th October and have just found out that my appointment for the CT planning scan isn’t until 16th December. I phoned up the radiotherapy dept and asked when i would actually start the treatment and they said it would likely be 2-3 weeks at least after that (so Jan 2025). Surely, that is too long to wait? My oncologist did say there is a long waiting list currently, but i didnt expect it to be this long!!
I had about 6 weeks between surgery and starting radio, but I went private because my hospital was taking forever. Can you be referred elsewhere? That seems like an unreasonably long time to wait.
Hi, this does seem a very long time to wait. I had my lumpectomy last April and appointment for follow up 3 weeks later. I saw oncologist 2 days after this. Ct planning was a couple of weeks later with radiotherapy the following week. So in all, I waited about 6 weeks after surgery. Best wishes x
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I had surgery on 9th August and will start radiotherapy on 24th October. There is a 9 week waiting list but I was told because my cancer is triple negative that I would be prioritised as I’m not on hormone treatment. If your cancer is hormone driven it’s possible that you are further down the list because you are on a drug regime that’s actively controlling your cancer.
Either way, my surgeon advised that the aim was to start radiotherapy within 3 months of surgery- so if you’re out of this timeframe it’s probably worth querying.
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Thank you, that is interesting. I have started tamoxifen so it would make sense that you would be prioritised over women like me who have that extra insurance of hormone therapy. I have queried it, and apparently its due to the lack of radiologists in this area.
Hi, I had my treatment last year in Sussex ( I am guessing from your username you may also be here). My wait for radiotherapy was 18 weeks because of staffing shortages, lack of resources (machines) and, at the time. strikes. I was very worried and when I queried it I was told it would have an impact on my risk of recurrence but there was nothing they could do. It’s very scary but that is the state of the NHS. I hope you get seen soon x
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Hi @brighton765
This does sound like a long time to wait for your planning scan, let alone the radiotherapy. I had surgery then Chemo then radiotherapy, so slightly different to you but I had my CT planning while having chemo and they wanted me to start radiotherapy within 2 weeks of finishing chemo. I said too soon as I needed to recover. I was hospitalised during chemo for 6 days and this affected my chemo regime so the radiotherapy had to be put back and then there was Christmas holidays. In the end I started a months after chemo. I was clear of cancer after my surgery but they were still keen to have the treatment one after the other.
I would call your breast care nurse to have a talk this through and discuss how you feel about waiting so long. You may also want to chat with the BCN nurses on here about the wait and what it means in your situation.
- Helpline: 0808 800 6000 (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm; Sat 9am-1pm). Speak to our trained helpline team. No questions are too big or too small.
I hope you get some explanation for the wait and some reassurance you need.
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That is interesting to hear. It sounds like it is a Sussex issue! X
Thank you for your response. I did discuss it with a breast cancer nurse and they were reassuring (in terms of risk of recurrance being low as i have already stated tamoxifen), but also admitted it’s not ideal.
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I’m in a different part of the country to you but I had what seemed like a long wait too, although not quite as long as you - surgery 21 August; radiotherapy planning 18 November; radiotherapy started 4th December.
Interestingly, there’s 2 places you can go to for radiotherapy from where I am. A new friend who I met in hospital (same op, same day) was allowed to go to one because she had a Grade 2 and she had all her radiotherapy done and dusted in October. Somewhat ironically, ‘protocols’ dictated that I had to go to the other one as I was Grade 3, and therefore classed as ‘higher risk’, but this is the one with the longer waiting list…
Hope you get yours soon…
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