Hi
I am a new user. My predicament is whether to have radiotherapy or not. I had a lumpectomy on 13th December for a 7mm G1 IDC ER positive, PR positive. Everything went fine healing nicely. Appointment with Oncologist on Monday who said everything was clear and gave me a prescription for Letrozole to take for 10 years. I have no qualms about taking this but the radiotherapy is a whole new ball game. My gut feeling is not to have it because of what it does to healthy tissue and the fact that you are putting such a potent thing in your body. I can understand for some this a positive but with such a small grade 1 cancer I think I would be fine just on the tablets. Grateful for anyone who could give me some guidance on this as to whether they went ahead with radiotherapy or didn’t have the radiotherapy. Much obliged.
Hi reynoly
congratulations on having got the surgery done and dusted and all ready with the Letrozole.
I was similar to you - Grade 1, Stage 1, lumpectomy, now on Anastozole (2 years done now) and 15 sessions of radiotherapy.
I was so grateful that I still had a breast and didn’t need chemo that I was very glad to take the rads and hormone tablets as insurance against any odd little cancer cells maybe still floating around in the breast area, as I was and am anxious to avoid a recurrence if possible.
Having read all the stuff on here about skin reactions etc I wasn’t looking forward to the radiotherapy but I have to say I had no problems at all - not even a slightly pink breast, and was rather worried the treatment wasn’rt working. :smileyhappy: I was a smoker at that time too, (not any more) and knew that this increased the risk of a bad reaction, but all was well. We are all different, but I’d say that if you moisturise and drink lots of water and follow the radiographers’ advice it is probably worth doing all you can to avoid a recurrence. In terms of likelihood of a recurrence with your grade and size of tumour, maybe ask your oncologist for a true estimation of likelihood and then decide whether to go for it or not on the basis of that. For me, even a 1% improvement of odds would have been enough to make me choose rads, as I don’t really want any more cancer, but i didn’t even ask, there was no chance I wasn’t going to take the rads. Good luck with everything whatever you decide, and a full recovery. x
I am in the same predicament. 4mm Grade 2 IDC ER+ PR+ plus a few mms of DCIS. When they went in at surgery there was no IDC there as it had all been removed at core vacuum assisted biopsy and they just removed 2mm of DCIS and got good clear margins. Had sentinel node removed all clear. Prior to surgery they said lumpectomy and radiotherapy. AFter surgery having seen how minimal it was, they are saying 1-2% chance of recurrence without radiotherapy and with radiotherapy 0.5 - 1% (half he risk). They are saying that in this case I really won’t benefit much, however if I am the sort of person who needs to do it for my peace of mind, then there is no harm in going ahead. Both options are in their opinion ‘safe’ and its up to me. I am so desperately conflicted about what to do and have been strugglign with the decision for days. Due to start the radiotherapy (15 treatments) on Monday but still truly don’t know whether to go ahead or not…I should be celebrating at how lucky I have been… but I am almost paralyzed with the fear of making a wrong decision…