I wrote a really long response, which won't post. Basically, as a 78 year old b.c. survivor, I am so glad that I went through with the 33 radiation treatments, because I definitely cannot and could not tolerate the adjuvant therapy pills (and I tried for over a year). Taking Anastrozole for 7 months caused my already fragile left knee to blow out and put me in a wheelchair for 6 months (September, 2022 - March, 2023), I didn't get an oncotype after surgery because I had a horrible oncologist (Illinois), but I finally got it 17 months late and it is 29, which is not a good score and means I should probably have had chemo. Taking Anastrozole for 7 months and Tamoxifen for 5 months ruined my left knee (I had been in a nationwide study called the MOST study for severe osteoarthritis, so he should not have prescribed the A.I. pills.). It also caused my bone density to decline from -1.4T to -2.2T (I am also a Type II diabetic). Two of my teeth sheared off below the gumline and the dental work started in November of 2023 and took until May 9, 2024 and cost $10,000. (My Illinois oncologist, of course, has denied that any of this was the result of the Anastrozole and said, in writing, "The only side effect of taking Anastrozole is a little bit of stiffness in your hands when you wake up first thing in the morning, and it goes away when you quit taking it." (Complete B.S.) Among the side effects I experienced on Anastrozole: EXCRUCIATING back and joint pain, Insomnia. Blurry vision. Mood swings. Teariness. Brain fog. Vivid violent nightmares, and then my left knee---already fragile from a bicycle accident) ---blew out as I was walking along a Chicago sidewalk to meet a girlfriend for lunch. X-rays on 9/19; 9/21; 9/28 and 11/15 in Texas. The pain caused me to drive to a joint pain clinic in Oak Brook, Illinois and have 32 ml of an anti-inflammatory injected and 6 ml of Durolane. I spent from September 15, 2022 until March of 2023 hobbling with a cane and in a wheelchair and my left knee will never be "right" again. On Tamoxifen, I experienced extreme fatigue and could only be up for 3 hours a day. Also, I had non-stop UTIs and now my liver enzymes are messed up and I had blood drawn for the 3rd time this morning to try to figure out why. (Also had to have a CAT scan with contrast.) Just remember that every drug has the possibility of side effects and there are a % of people (like me) who just cannot tolerate them---any of them. I should have been prescribed Tamoxifen, but that was no day at the beach, either, and if I had a 0 oncotype (instead of the 29 that says I have a 36% chance of recurrence) I would not take ANY of the adjuvant therapy drugs they prescribed. I do realize that everyone is quite different and you may have no bad side effects, but, for me, I'm just grateful that I went ahead with the radiation, because, 3 days before it was to start, Iowa City told me that they would not have radiated me at all, but that is really all that is hopefully "protecting" me now. I just cannot live the rest of my life (I'm heading into my 8th decade soon) sitting in a wheelchair in excruciating pain on the off chance that the pill that is making me miserable will "protect" me. If I have to resume taking one of the toxic pills to reduce estrogen and "protect" me, I will try Tamoxifen in a reduced dosage again, because I could just barely tolerate 40 mg a week (10 every other day), but my oncologist said I needed to step it up to 20 mg. a day and that was the beginning of the end. I quit them all on Aug. 30, 2023. I am apprehensive that my relatively high onco score of 29 will lead to a recurrence, and, as my Texas oncologist said, "I'm not worried that it will come back in your breast. I'm worried that it will come back some place else." And so am I, in the light of liver enzymes that, on May 1 were 78 (ALT) when they aren't supposed to be higher than 57 and, 23 days later, had risen to 145. The taking of toxic substances at our advanced ages is NOT the same as if we were in our thirties or our forties. I am really hoping that the radiation protects me, because the pills were godawful.