Full lymph node clearance or radiotherapy

Kay1 6 days ago

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Hi all, I have been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. I have had a lumpectomy (13mm lump which included invasive and DCIS) and 2 sentinel nodes were removed, both positive with macro cancer 5-5.5mm and one node had extra capsular spread but no LVI present. I’m 35 years old.
I have been given the choice of a full axillary lymph node clearance or radiotherapy on that area (as well as my breast) a surgeon more recommend me to do the radiotherapy due to the high risk of lymphoedema. I’m wondering if anyone else has been in the same position and how you felt? I’m worried if I don’t get the node clearance no one will ever know the true extent of the node involvement but I don’t want to live with lymphodemia for the rest of my life and I’ll be having chemo, radiotherapy, tamoxifen and ovarian suppression injections. I’ve also read it’s 1% more lifetime reocurance of it coming back in the nodes by having the radiotherapy instead of the clearance! Which isn’t a big number and chemo will be killing any involvement anyway ‍♀️

Kay1 6 days ago

I also have no suspicious or enlarged nodes on my mri scan, ultrasound and CT scan!

Rose222 4 days ago

Hi Kay,

I was 35 when I had my bc 5 years ago. It was a very similar situation - stage 2a, 11mm lump and 2 out of 3 sentinel nodes taken out were cancerous with macro metastases of 2 & 12mm.

I live in France, so maybe the treatment here is different, but I was offered something in the middle of your options! I had 5 months of chemo followed by another operation to remove 4 axillary nodes to check for signs of cancer, followed by 27 sessions of radiotherapy. It seemed a good option to take only a few more nodes rather than all of them to reduce lymphodemia risk, and it also gave me good peace of mind knowing for sure that there wasn't any cancer cells remaining after chemo (the reincision results came back clear). Could it be worth asking you doctor if they can take less nodes out?

It's such a hard thing to have to make a choice like that. I guess you have to weigh up what carries the bigger risks for you and hopefully that will make the decision for you! Wishing you the best of luck xx

Potentially_practicalf819f2 4 days ago

Hi, I'm 47yo and was diagnosed with stage2 IDC this year.I've chosen radio as have seen lymphoedema in the past ( working in healthcare). It wasn't bad at all and arm is OK now. Good luck!

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