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Aromatase Inhibitors: Did you decide to go on them or not?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: May 12, 2023 | Replies (1190)Comment receiving replies
So I found an interesting study that says basically that Oncotype does not correlate with benefit or no benefit from radiation, so @callalloo you may be right in saying that this needs to be corrected at breastcancer.org.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8285794/
2015
excerpt:
"Interestingly, radiation therapy was protective in patients with intermediate or low Oncotype DX scores but not in patients with high Oncotype DX scores (Table (Table2).2). In intermediate-risk patients, an HR of 0.72 (p = 1.5E−5) suggested that patients who underwent radiation therapy had longer OS compared to patients who did not undergo radiation therapy. Similarly, an HR of 0.76 (p = 2.0E−4) in low-risk patients suggested prolonged OS after the use of radiotherapy (Table (Table2).2). A similar observation was made when using BCSS although the association in low-risk patients did not reach statistical significance (Additional file 2 – Table 1)."
I should have had radiation afterall! Maybe you too!
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In my case, the radiation offered was a kind of post-surgery "clean up" of the excision area, and was usually done within 6 weeks of the surgery. The radiologist explained it as ...as if one had broken a glass and picked up all of the visible pieces already (the surgery). Then the radiation was analogous to vacuuming up any unseen tiny pieces.
It's not a bad idea but it only gives some extra protection to the tiny area of the excision. It does not affect the possibility of radiation anywhere else including elsewhere in the same breast. My two issues were that radiation in the left breast would be nearer the heart andcalways carries the increased risk of lymphedema. The protocol was for radiation every other day, five times.
But even the radiologist described it as an option rather than a stong suggestion. The second oncologist I saw said it's an option but he wouldn't have recommended it at the time given the post-surgical biopsy.
One never knows if all the decisions, in retrospect, turned out to look perfect in the rear view mirror :-). The thing is that, with cancer, the decisions can come so fast while one is still reeling from having found oneself in Cancerland in the first place. And trying to avoid the horror stories heard about other cancer patients' too-late regrets. I suspect many of us share that whirlpool of having to act fast, while thinking takes time.