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Lynn1148's avatar
Lynn1148
Member
8 years ago

Radiotherapy and Hormone Replacement

I have had breast cancer surgery and mammoplasty plus lymph node biopsy 4 weeks ago.  Margins were clear and no cancer in lymph nodes.  I am scared about having radiotherapy and hormone replacement.  Has anyone not gone through with radiotherapy and what were the results?  I have heard that radiotherapy and hormone replacement actually cause breast cancer.

8 Replies

  • Below are a couple of links to help you find your way around the forum and also how to find a breast care nurse and how to order a MY journey Kit if you haven't got one yet. 

    It can be a a whirlwind when we first get a diagnosed.... Breathe and take it one step at a time. 

    The what and how thread.

    http://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/discussion/14879/the-what-and-how-thread/p1 

    Breast Care Nurses

    https://www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au/OurMission/OurNurses/FindANurse.aspx 

    My Journey Kits and other resources. 

    https://www.bcna.org.au/resources/

    BCNA Helpline 1800 500 258

    If you have any questions, concerns or require any further information or support please call 1800 500 258.  The Helpline is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 am till 5 pm EST and Tuesday and Thursday from 9 am till 9 pm EST.


  • Thank you for all  your feedback.  Will look into the Expert trial.  Meeting with radiologist/oncologist next week.
  • @Lynn1148 I'm currently on just hormone therapy (2 lumpectomies, no lymph node involvement, been on letrozole for nearly seven months) and have been told I have minimal chance of the cancer returning. I am part of the EXPERT trial which is aiming to prove that radiation treatment is not necessary for early stage breast cancer. You get randomized into one of two groups, hormone only or radiation plus hormone. It is a ten year trial and you can back out at any time. Ask your medical team for more info and whether you would be a good candidate for taking part. You can have a gene assay test done, at great cost, to determine your risk of recurrence but if your score is under say 10, radiation is only going to halve the chance of cancer coming back. You really have to be guided by your med team and ask heaps of questions. The gene assay test is done as part of the EXPERT trial (at no cost to you) to determine your suitable for the trial (whether you are 'luminal A' type of BC and have a score of under 60) but as part of the trial parameters you do not find out your score and neither do the researchers. They may release that info down the track. I hope they do because the researchers would be getting a wealth of data that they could analyse along with everything else. I did say as much to my study co-coordinator and he thought along the same lines as me. Good luck with what decide to do. 
    Cath
  • When I was diagnosed with B/C the radiation oncologist told me that radiation treatment was optional, I chose to have 16 treatments fortunately I had no side effects I am on Tamoxifen for the next 4 yours touch wood no side effects 
  • @Lynn1148 I think the aim of the hormone therapy is to inhibit their growth because they are what feeds most breast cancers. It depends whether you are pre or post menopausal at the time of diagnosis which type you are given. and within each type there are lots of replacements if you don't take well to the first lot. They've really got us covered.
    Welcome...

    @Renatha I've been taking Arimidex for 3 weeks and have felt nothing different. The side effects are very similar to chemo which I'm still very much recovering from.
    But yours is a wise story for me to read at this stage, feeling as ambivalent as I do about another 10 years of AI's.

  • Hi @Lynn1148 I can’t comment on the hormone replacement sorry hopefully someone else can. Radiotherapy can cause cancer but the chances of it occuring is extremely small and it would take 10-20 years for a radiation induced cancer to occur.
    any other questions about radiotherapy I am more than happy to answer 
  • Hi @Lynn1148

    Welcome to the forum.  Yes, definitely ask what percentage increase of cover these will give you given your specific type of cancer.  Radiation is delivered specifically for each patient.  @JoeyLiz  is a radiation nurse and may be able to answer some questions for you.

    I had 30 rounds of radiation after chemotherapy due to there being a number of lymph nodes already involved from the beginning. 

    I had very little problems with the treatment itself.   A bit of  a skin issue in the last two weeks but that healed quickly. 
    Hormone replacement therapy is very different to the targeted hormone therapy prescribed for breast cancer.

    xoxoxo
  • I don't know, I had lumpectomy and aux clearance 4 yrs ago, radiation and Arimadex. They wanted me to have chemo which I refused. They printed out a statistical probability 5 & 10 years down the track and chemo offered only a small % reduction of risk. Also went off the Arimadex after a year due to trying to eliminate causes of fatigue. Now just had aux dissection as 1 lymph node + and they took 2. 10 taken first time, 1+ then 1+ this time. They said the return was combination of 1st surgeon missing 2 lymph nodes and if I'd continued taking medication, would have delayed return. Can they give you a statistical outcome of possibility of return?