Hi everyone.
My Names Kirstie, I was diagnosed In April this year (2022) with right breast cancer. ER+PR+ HER- I had a right mastectomy in May which they also took 3 lymphnodes for testing. Unfortunately 2/3 had cancer cells present.
I’ve so far had 5 rounds of Chemo. Had my 5th round on 28th September And the question with my oncologist has come up about whether or not to have radiotherapy. Being only 25 he did say that it carriers higher risks at causing cancer. Im yet to have my full lymphnodes axillary (right side) also been approved for left side preventive surgery due to my age.
I guess Im just really looking for advice from all you lovely lot. Views, thoughts, opinions and own stories very welcome.
I haven’t really spoken to anyone else with breast cancer this entire journey so its a bit scary reaching out.
Many thanks
Hi @KirstieF , I hope you’re finding these boards useful so far.
While you’re browsing the boards and reading other people’s stories, I found this page on our website that may be useful.
Sending all our love
Bernard
Kirstie you could maybe also post in the radiotherapy section ? I found radiotherapy tiring and boring but compared to chemo I think it is pretty doable .It’s a very personal choice what treatment you have and everyone is very individual in how their cancer needs to be treated . I hope you come to a conclusion you are comfortable with . I hope the links provided by the nurses and Bernard are helpful x
I will say most everything we get to treat breast cancer causes a higher rate of cancer elsewhere. Endocrine therapy does not as far as I know but it has other, arguably, just as serious consequences for our health we need to be aware of. There’s no getting around it although one day I hope they can.
In saying that, I can give you a perspective from the US but I believe that with lymph node involvement and your age, radiation would be highly recommended. Did you get your grade though and oncotype score? That can give you an idea on how aggressive your tumor was and how likely it would respond to hormone therapy. All of that would go into making a decision, too. Let’s say you’re a grade one and highly hormonal with a very low recurrence score. Well then possibly not but considering they put you on chemo already I don’t think that’s the case. Chemo is usually what they question doing, not radiation. I can tell you why they do radiation and maybe that will help. Chemo theoretically is supposed to kill all breast cancer cells that might have escaped the original tumor or tumor bed. And it normally does a really good job but sometimes not as good as a job as needed with hormone positive tumors. Lots of theories why but the going one from what I’ve read is because they tend to be slower growing then the others and chemo targets very fast growing cells. It also is normally used to make sure metastasis doesn’t happen. Sure it helps with leftover cancer cells in the breast, too, but radiation is for that specifically if the person has had local spread. And you have and we know this because it was in your lymph nodes. You might have had LVI, too. They took off your breast but there is no way they can completely take out all breast material. It’s just impossible so if you had one cell that has migrated to a spot that surgery didn’t take care of and chemo missed then you get a local recurrence. Anyway depending on your grade and recurrence score maybe they don’t want to do a full bout of radiation. And if they do, they take extra measure to protect your organs (which they should do with everyone regardless). But in the US, I don’t think here anyone would ever suggest you skip radiation unless you were above a certain age (I’ve been told 50) and node negative. Or if there were other health issues involved. But as young as you are I think they would throw everything at it because you have a long life left to live.