Is radiation needed for early-stage breast cancer?

I’m not an expert. I was stage 1 and got out of it!

It depends on your team. I was stage 0, went through radiation in my current town as it was viewed as ‘standard procedure’. Now with new oncologist in next town over who said she probably wouldn’t have had me do radiation.

I have dcis stage 0 intermediate grade. I opted for radiation. Did not want to skip it and later regret that decision

K B thanks Did you have partial breast radiation or full?

Full, 4 weeks but the last 4 sessions were “boost” sessions, directed at where the DCIS was. The early sessions also hit my armpit for the lymph nodes

There was a test they did on my dcis, i think it was called decisionRT, something like that. It came back that i had a 20 something % chance of recurrent dcis or invasive cancer if i didn’t do radiation but less than 10 % if i completed radiation. Ask if they did something like that on you. Makes a decision easier. Also, memorial sloan kettering has a “calculator “ on its website. If you have your pathology report, you enter features of your dcis into the calculator and it calculates the likelihood of recurrence with various treatment options.

KB thanks for your response. I’ll check the Sloan calculator. Yes I had that same DCIS test. Mine came back at 13% recurrence so they recommended the partial breast five day route since I was slightly elevated. The issue for me is they give the ct scans daily prior to the treatment for this procedure and I’m concerned about radiation exposure. The radiologist waived off my question when I asked about that.

Daily CTs? How many? I only had one before the rad tx started, they called it “mapping.”

Yes. I would have one every day for the five days of treatment because they use it to target only the lumpectomy cavity. . Just had one for the simulation this week. Im not crazy about doing that.

Hmmm. I think i would push the rad oncologist for more detail on how much radiation exposure you will have, how it compares to other regimens and for detailed data on the risks. I am a person who is way over on the “maximal” treatment side, (was at first leaning towards double mastectomy). My nature is to overtreat but that may not be you. Also sounds like i had more risk from my dcis

KB. Thanks. That’s good advice. I’ll ask for more information on that. Yes my risk percentage is lower so that’s why I was offered pb treatment.

Good luck to you. You r in my thoughts and prayers.

Actually, i was offered the short term pb treatment and turned it down in favor of fb with boost. Wanted to max out treatment. Taking AIs now too

Treatment decisions for DCIS can vary significantly based on many individual factors that only your oncology team can fully evaluate. Many people in this community have navigated similar questions about radiation therapy, and connecting with others who've been through DCIS treatment might provide valuable perspective alongside your medical team's guidance.