Radiation Therapy Omission

Hi Klio​, Bluebell-1​ , maxis​  and Hopeday​ , there seems to be more and more questions being raised within the medical community about the value of RT in certain BC situations. I have included an excerpt below from an online article published in January last Year and there are many scientific articles that have been published in the last couple of years debating the value of radiation in a number of different situations (please read below).

My point is that you are all absolutely right to question the value of RT in your specific cases and get answers directly related to your personal situations. It’s impressive to see more and more women advocating for themselves. I didn’t and I regret it.

“The purpose of radiation is to kill cancer cells in a targeted way. With breast cancer, it is often used after surgery to kill off any cancer cells that may remain in the breast or surrounding area.  But there are three main areas of debate about radiation all with the focus of reducing side effects while maximizing outcomes, says Dr. Chirag Shah, Director of Breast Radiation Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center. There’s the question of whether to radiate the whole breast versus partial breast radiation, there’s debate about whether some patients even need radiation at all, and there’s debate about which radiation techniques offer the best outcomes with the least side effects.”