Has anyone been told they don't need radiation after chemo eliminated cancer?

That’s sounds like very good news! I was similarly diagnosed in January 2025 and going thru 6 rounds and also will be going for a double mastectomy to avoid radiation. May I ask if you got reconstructive surgery? And what kind?

I have expanders in, they also did nipple sparing. I will find out Wednesday after I meet the radiology oncologist to see if he recommends radiation since I had a positive lymph node in the very beginning of my diagnosis. Once I had surgery, I had absolutely no cancer cells whatsoever show up in the breast tissue or the lymph nodes so I’m hoping he will not make me do radiation. I will have reconstructive surgery later.

I am hoping after double mastectomy I can avoid radiation.

Krystal, that is so good! I had the same out come after your chemo regimen and surgery. I chose to do radiation, though my Radiation Oncologist said that my cancer was so big, and with it being in my lymph nodes at the beginning she recommended that we do radiation and that there weren’t enough studies to tell her otherwise. She said all it takes is one cancer cell to get missed and it can grow…. So we chose after everything to do radiation. Honestly it wasn’t that bad, it was daily for 30 days Monday -Friday and in and out with 20 mins. It took me longer to drive there. After about 20 days it hurt and a 2 weeks after I had an open wound, and I am still burned but I made sure to stay active, and am glad with my decision. But if you would have asked me in the think of it, I may have opted out of radiation. My Double mastectomy recovery was way harder than radiation. I get my expanders replaced in September.

Thank you for update. Good information for me to think about. Wish you the best.

Sally G Thank you for sharing. I meet with Radiation Oncologist today. Good Luck with your reconstructive surgery in September.

Ida M - keep us posted and good luck with everything.

Krystal let us know what your radiation oncologist says. I am interested to hear. I had 16 lymph nodes removed, and they were all negative. From what my surgeon said they just “fell out”

I am in the early stage still going thru TCHP infusions. Need 3 more. I am at a lost of what comes next.

Similar story here. Age 63. Dx’d Feb 2025 with triple positive IDC. Grade 2. Pet scan showed no cancer has left the breast, but oncologist felt swelling initially. Going on having 5th round of THP chemo therapy with really only diarrhea issues. Still eat, have gained 10 pounds :-/ Chemo was effective immediately. Now after 4th round (yesterday) the tumor has gone from quarter size to a pea. 90% gone. I’m so grateful! Scheduled for bilateral mastectomy at the end of July. Praying to not need radiation. I feel like that would be the Ace up my sleeve if (God forbid!) it comes back! I don’t want to max out on radiation and need it later. I haven’t spoken to the radiology people yet, so really don’t know if that is a factor. I just know my brother had cancer and he maxed out his radiation. Prayers and hopeful for NED (no evidence of disease!) for all of us!

What is the recovery time for double mastectomy? I am on round 2 of the Red devil with surgery for double mastectomy after my 4th round, so just wondering.

I’ve been told 4-6 weeks if all goes well and no setbacks like infection or poor wound healing. I’ve chosen no reconstruction, so if you get expanders for that, it may be longer. Best of luck to us both!!

Update: Radiation Oncologist said Yes, I need radiation. Since my original diagnosis before any treatment showed i had a few lymph node showing some activity radiation is the protocol at this time. Like someone said earlier, not enough studies done to show that I shouldn’t do it. So we are sticking to the standard of care which is radiation. He did say I would get a low dose, it will not be a hard hit. It will not affect other areas. My Oncologist, also agreed with him. I trust them so I am doing it. Going June 2nd for my mapping and planning. It should be 5 1/2 weeks, mon-Friday. As far as the double mastectomy, after day 3 I stopped the prescription pain meds and just went to Tylenol. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. The drains are a pain and I was excited to get those out after two weeks but in general, I feel great. I am 2 1/2 weeks out and I feel great. The lymph node area is what hurts worse than the mastectomy.

Krystal S - May I ask what made you choose a double mastectomy vs a lumpectomy? Also will you be doing radiation with your expanders?

I had 2 spots on my left breast , 1 was the size of a silver dollar the other was the size of a quarter. The surgery said due to the size and having more than one I wasn’t a candidate for a lumpectomy. Yes, expanders will need to stay in during radiation. If you are going to do reconstruction, they make you keep the expanders in because they aren’t affected by the radiation. If I was to have implants in, the radiation would affect the implants. But radiation doesn’t affect expanders. I will have to wait 6 to 9 months after radiation for my body to heal before they do reconstruction.

Krystal S. - Thank you for sharing this information because I am looking into going for a double mastectomy as my lump on my right breast was the size of a lime. Also want reconstruction and I too may require radiation.

I begin 20 radiation rounds on Wednesday. Diagnosed March 22 with high grade DCIS stage 0 Had lumpectomy and clear margins but my doctors and oncologist want me to to the rad to make sure nothing escaped them in surgery

I had active cancer still in the main tumor but nodes were all burnt out after TChp. I did radiation and did not have much side effects at all. They gave me silvadene for the burn and turned it around quickly. But my radiation oncologist appologized to me that I probably did not need the radiation bc the new monoclonal antibody meds are so good but he did not have a spot in his study for no treatment. This was Oct 2023. I would have taken standard of care either way. I think now they have even more data that you may not need it in your specific situation. Stay strong you got this.

My daughter had triple negative breast cancer 7 years ago. She had a double mastectomy, was in hospital overnight and the next day stayed home the day after she went back to work. She previously had the red devil and also worked all the way through it. She had three months of daily radiation five days a week and also worked through all of that and said radiation was the easiest part of it all. She had expanders put in and had some problems there, and had to go for a weekly shots when her iron was low .When she went for her reconstruction surgery that’s where the problems began and she received. A diseased cadaver and she and the other people who got a piece of the same one All got very ill and she had blood clots, and we nearly lost her. But she is a tough cookie and after several blood transfusions, she made it and seven years later, she is here to tell the tale. Her only advice to everyone is forget the reconstruction, you’re fine without it. Let your body be natural. She still has to have mammograms even though she has no breasts and regular blood work but is seven years out from triple negative breast cancer. She wishes everyone the best outcome and begs. Everyone don’t do a reconstruction. .

I had her2 positive, hormone negative stage 2b breast cancer. At surgery, I had no residual cancer. There was a recent study from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dec 2023 I think. 1500 women with all kinds of breast cancers, node positive, who received no residual cancer report at surgery. The study result- radiation would only improve non-recurrence by 1 percent, from 97 percent to 98 percent. So I chose not to do radiation. The radiologist from MD Anderson pointed the study out to me and recommended that I don’t do it and I listened. My radiologist in Austin said that it’s standard of care since I was node positive, but he didn’t see this latest study. I hope this helps. I had reconstruction only 4 months later. Gap flap. Still healing. I need one revision next month then I’m done.

radiation is not usually recommended after mastectomy especially as there is no node involvement. You’ll probably be on aromatase inhibitor for post treatment if your cancer is hormone receptive.

Sony - God willing after my mastectomy I will not need radiation.

Radiation does indeed effect reconstruction! You can’t have both . Please look into this ! Don’t bother with reconstruction if you are going to do radiation.

What wonderful news about having no cancer cells detected after chemotherapy! Treatment decisions about radiation can vary based on many factors including initial staging, response to treatment, and individual risk factors. Some patients in similar situations may not need radiation, while others might still benefit from it as an extra precaution. This is definitely a great question to discuss thoroughly with your oncology team, as they can best evaluate all aspects of your specific case and explain their recommendations.