Would you have Rads if given the choice?
Hi all,
Happy new year to everyone and hope you're all doing well! I finally met the Radiation oncologist today and he said it was basically up to me whether I have radiation or not. I told him I'd think about it and get back to him. I've finished my AC treatment but still have 12 taxol to do. I was also given the option of whether I wanted to have taxol or not. The reason being that all my nodes were negative. I decided to go ahead with the taxol as I'd rather be over-treated than under-treated and I was also told that the most recent recommendation from the US was to have it if you're young and that it should reduce the chances of re-occurrence by 1-2%. However, I'm not sure if I also want to have radiation if I'm not being told that I really NEED it. The RO said that one of the tumours was very close to the skeletal muscle and wouldn't have had the 5mm margin on one side but that he couldn't say radiation would be of any benefit to me or increase my survival rate etc. The only possible benefit is a small unquantifiable reduction in the chance of re-occurrence.....so what would you do? On one side I can't wait for treatment to be finished but on the other I want to do everything possible to reduce the chance of this coming back!
Thanks
Pamela
Comments
I had a similar diagnosis & choice to make. Rads would have perhaps made a 2-3% benefit, but would have damaged my body, damaged my reconstructed boob etc. I was borderline for receiving chemo, but did AC & taxol. I declined rads and have moved on with life, happy with my decision. Make your choice for your own reasons and just try to live a happy future either way. We cannot choose how/when we die, but we can choose how we live 
Xxxx
Hello Pamela!
Happy New Year to you right back, and I hope you are feeling well.
I felt I had to respond to your message, not because I have a huge amount of wisdom to contribute, but because I feel you are being put in a very unfair position by your RO. I don't wish to be unfair to him, but leaving it up to you without some guidance sounds a bit like a cop out to me. If it the advantage to RT is genuinely unquantifiable, then at the very least he should equip you with as much info as possible on the pros and cons to help you decide.
I would not want to say that RT is a benign treatment, clearly it isn't. It is also very constraining if you live any distance from the treatment centre, as you have to attend daily for a few weeks. But most women I know who have also had chemo describe it (by comparison) as a walk in the park, especially if they were lucky enough to have little skin reaction (which was my case, luck compounded by the fact that I didn't need chemo).
I really feel for you being put in such a difficult decision making position. Do look for as much info as you can from the pros, they owe you that!!
I wish you the very, very best!
Catherine