What questions to ask Oncologist?

Hi MoominAncestor, I was going to tell you what I asked but then I came across this on The Royal Marsden's website which I thought was a really good exhaustive list.  Wish I'd come across it before my appointment.  

Here is what it says:

I must admit to not even knowing that the Breast Surgeon leaves little clips in the area where the tumour was, so when it comes to radiotherapy they know where the cancer that has been removed (hopefully) was. I asked the Radiographer how they knew where the cancer bed was to target. Basic, but there we are. If you have radiotherapy you need to know how to look after your skin - and what to moisturise it with. I am not finding it too tiring but fatigue can be an issue.

Thanks Godwilling and Venicelagoon.

I didn't know about the clips either! I think half my boob was tumours so I'm curious as to how they would mark that with clips.  Ah well, that's not for me to worry about. 

Those questions are really helpful, thank you. 

I had a telephone appt yesterday with the lead Radiographer. She asked what side effects I was experiencing. Pink and a bit sore breast because the radiotherapy builds up each day and continues working. She stressed the moisturising. On this site there are people whose cancer comes back, so I asked her about this. This is a question to ask an Oncologist. I think it depends on the type of cancer you have. After all this treatment you get annual mammograms for 5 years and I wondered whether this was sufficient for people whose tumours have not been easily detected on mammograms. I got what seemed to me an odd answer from a Radiographer.....National screening won't give you an MRI scan because of the radiation !!!!! That's after they've given me 15 sessions of daily radiotherapy !!!!!!

Just revisiting this one, I'm on the penultimate radiotherapy tomorrow but they also hold clinic so have asked to see oncologist as never met them before. I had a phone consult with a then retired locum. I suppose the main thing i want to ask is prognosis. How likely is is to come back? 

Anyone think I should be asking anything else? Thanks x

I think that's a perfectly valid question to ask. I'd like to know the answer too. This is because there are obviously people on this site who are devastated that a tumour has returned after all the treatment they've had. I asked what would be the chances of it re-occuring without radiotherapy, but did not get an answer other than that they use the Predict tool and it was recommended for me by everyone. I also know that if you have radiation it can alter the breast tissue so that Surgeons find it more difficult to work with if they do have to go back and do something about a new tumour after radiotherapy. I was told really not to worry about re-occurrence, but one can't help worrying when seeing that it can re-occur. We are supposed to be back to examining for lumps ourselves after radiotherapy. "New normal" I was told.........what a phrase !!!