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Diagnosed with DCIS: How do I decide on treatment?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Mar 20 10:00am | Replies (345)Comment receiving replies
Rene, this might not apply in your case but I was offered site-specific radiation on a schedule of every other day for a total of 5 sessions. I go to Cleveland Clinic but read the story of a woman patient at Mayo who also had 5 sessions of radiation. I think it was also external bean radiation. So even with radiation, there are options and one specialist's standard protocol might not be another's. Or one facility might have newer technology than another. That might add to your research burden but does suggest that a second opinion may give you a better field of choices as well.
I applaud your research and trying to balance possible competing health issues. I declined radiation myself as the stage 1A tumor was in my left breast and therefore a little riskier as close to my heart. And two pathology reports showed wide clean margins after the lumpectomy. And the sentinel lymph node was negative. I didn't even know at the time that radiation could preclude further radiation if necessary.
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Thank you! That’s good information on the radiation technique! I will research further in the event I find I need radiation. My Radiology Oncologist told me that they use the mega dose radiation on the entire breast 5 days a week for 4 weeks. She didn’t mention any other type of radiation to choose from. After researching I’ve seen that there are a lot more side effects from the mega doses of radiation. Since there was nothing found after my lumpectomy clean margins are not applicable to me to help decide. I can’t believe that doctors are not telling women that in most cases if something comes back in the same breast after already having radiation their only choice is mastectomy. My own surgeon didn’t tell me, I asked her after seeing it several times during my “uneducated” research. I think this should be in every doctors discussion with patients. By seeing responses in several groups it seems the opposite. I think a lot of doctors just go with “standard care” & aren’t looking outside the box for treatment options specific to an individuals case. Women need to be their own advocate when it comes to treatments. Maybe it’s because I’m from Missouri, the “show me” state, lol. Or it’s as my mother used to say “I won’t do anything unless I think it’s my idea”. 🙂 I took what the doctors said & expanded on that by extensive research at the major cancer sites. Breast cancer is one hell of a journey. What you decide today could greatly impact you later. Wishing us ALL the BEST!