Radiation therapy for breast cancer
Most women now need far fewer sessions than they expect. A five or six week course was once standard. Shorter schedules are now recommended for most people. If travel is your problem, that is the most useful thing on this page to ask about.
The number of sessions is the part of this treatment that has changed most. Fewer, larger doses now give the same result as the long daily courses of a decade ago. That matters enormously if you are travelling in from a district every weekday.
How many sessions will I need?
Three courses in common use. They are equally effective for suitable cancers, so the question is which one fits your life — and that is a fair thing to raise.
It is a clinical decision rather than a preference. But your travel situation is information your radiation oncologist needs, and it does sometimes change the plan.
Two things get confused with the schedule
Ask your radiation oncologistWhat technique is planned, whether a shorter course applies to you, and whether the network can deliver it.
What one visit actually takes out of your day
The treatment itself is the shortest part of it. Almost nobody is told this, and it is the reason the number of trips matters more than the number of minutes.
-
Step oneArrive and changeYou change into a gown for the upper body. Nothing else about the day requires undressing. -
Step twoGetting you in positionThe longest part. You lie still while the team lines you up against the marks made at planning. Usually ten to fifteen minutes. -
Step threeThe treatment itselfA couple of minutes. You feel nothing at all, you are alone in the room, and the staff can see and hear you throughout. -
Step fourStraight homeNo admission, no recovery time, no anaesthetic. You are not radioactive afterwards and you are safe around children.
Inside the department, a visit is about twenty minutes. The reason a course feels heavy is everything around it — the travel each way, the wait, and doing it again the next day. If you are coming from a district, count the journey rather than the treatment when you plan.
Before the first session: planning and lying still
There is one appointment before treatment starts where nothing is given. It is also where you find out what the position feels like, which is the part worth preparing for.
You are alone in the room, and never unobserved. The staff watch you on camera and can hear you the whole time. The machine stops the moment they need it to, and you can raise a hand or speak at any point. You may be asked to hold your breath for a few seconds at a time, which moves the heart away from the treated area. You will practise that at planning, not on the first day.
What decides which course you are offered
Pick a factor to see how it bears on the number of sessions. Knowing these is what turns the conversation into a two-way one.
How it bears on the schedule
The starting point for everything. After a lumpectomy, radiation to the breast is almost always part of the plan. After a mastectomy it is added only when there is a specific reason, such as a large cancer or involved nodes.
Worth asking: “Given the operation I had, do I need radiation at all — and if so, to what area?”
Effect on the number of sessionsDecides whether you need any, and whether the chest wall or the nodes are included.
Why it is given at all
The answer is different depending on which operation you had, and the difference matters.
Side effects, and what you can still do
Radiation is local, so the effects are mostly local too. That surprises people who are expecting something like chemotherapy.
What to expect
The commonest effect by far. The skin over the treated area gradually reddens, darkens or feels tight. It usually builds from about the second week and peaks a week or two after the course finishes.
What helps: a plain unscented moisturiser, loose cotton clothing, and no hot water or soap directly on the area. Tell the team early if it breaks or weeps rather than waiting for the next review.
How long it lastsSettles over several weeks after the course ends. Some permanent darkening is common and it fades a great deal.
Read next
Choosing surgery
Why radiation makes them equivalent.
Chemotherapy
Cycles, and what they involve.
Surgery cost
What a surgical bill is made of.
Is it curable?
What curative intent means.
Just diagnosed
What to do in the first seven days.
Costs and cover
The whole course, and scheme cover.
Ask how many sessions you actually need
Bring your surgery notes and pathology report. A radiation oncologist can tell you whether radiation is needed and which area it would cover. They can also say how many sessions that means, and which centre would deliver them. Tell us where you are travelling from — it is information we need, not a complication.
9 clinics across Hyderabad, within a network of 35+ centres across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Radiation is delivered on equipment inside NABH-accredited partner centres, planned and overseen by CION radiation oncologists.
Toll free 1800 202 8726 · Advancing Care. Passionately.