Radiation and the Tumor Board

[roz123]

hi leah
i was also in a grey area for rads, seems a lot of ppl are

i had chemo before surgery, while in treatment I was told that i would have to have rads whether i had a msx or lump because i had lymphovascular invasion (negative nodes as per imaging)

i wanted to avoid rads aswell and would have done the msx at the get go if i got a free pass...anyway i decided to do the lump and then do the bmsx after i healed b/c here in canada they will not put expanders in if you are having rads

fast forward to surgery...i have the lumpectomy and they tell me i had a complete response, zero cancer in the lump sample or nodes. My BS and MO tell me now that i can go straight to a bmsx and skip rads. RO is on the fence because of my complete response. So of course i am totally confused because i was told all along regardless of the surgery i chose i would have to do rads

i decided to do them...why? well the LVI was playing on my mind, some RO's consider it a positive node. Also my nodes were not tested prior to starting chemo so i really don't know if they were effected. My reasoning is that rads get everything, even tissue that cannot be surgically removed (you can't get everythin in a msx) Did i make the right decision? who knows. I am still going ahead with the bmsx in september

as for micromets in one node -that is a big grey area, some radiate some don't -

I would check NCCN guidelines and see what that says. I think (and this is just a layman's opinion) that you could go either way, it is just what you feel comfortable with. They would probably only radiate your axilla so you would not be getting the full rads exposure

good luck
this cancer crap is tough!