Cancer question

[Splodge]

Are there any limitations as to how much chemotherapy or radiotherapy you
can have with breast cancer? I have a friend who has already had two lots
of chemo and two lots of rads, and now has secondary cancer.

I know the answer might vary dependent on the strength of chemo/rads but any
general help would be appreciated.

Splodge

[Tim Jackson]

Yes there are limits, but each drug and therapy has its own different
limit, and she is unlikely to have reached any of them during primary
treatment.

With radiotherapy, the limit is for the particular tissue irradiated,
and may become an issue late in secondary treatment, depending on the
treatment strategy used. The actual limit depends which tissue is
involved, and what other organs may get radiated incidentally.

With chemotherapy, there are quite a lot of drugs to chose from, so when
one drug reaches the limit of tolerance or becomes ineffective, there
are others available to switch to.

Tim Jackson

[Splodge]

"Tim Jackson" <t...@tim-jackson.co.uk> wrote in message
news:XumdnYc-Te2NC3XX...@brightview.co.uk...

>
> Yes there are limits, but each drug and therapy has its own different
> limit, and she is unlikely to have reached any of them during primary
> treatment.
>
> With radiotherapy, the limit is for the particular tissue irradiated, and
> may become an issue late in secondary treatment, depending on the
> treatment strategy used. The actual limit depends which tissue is
> involved, and what other organs may get radiated incidentally.
>
> With chemotherapy, there are quite a lot of drugs to chose from, so when
> one drug reaches the limit of tolerance or becomes ineffective, there are
> others available to switch to.
>
>
> Tim Jackson

Thanks Tim
Splodge

[X YO]

I am SO glad we are back to posting our normal posts and our young
old-timers have not left us!

The answers on the chemo and radiation therapies being done again if the
cancer returns confuses me. My Onc's answer was quite different. I did
not think they could redo the patient again if it reoccurs. Does this
mean only if it reoccurs in the same breast? If it is a different part
of the body or the other breast can they do the chemo and rads again?

I am on my second 5 years of Arimidex as of this summer and don't know
what the survival factors are for the second go round so am really
interested in what my options are in case the Arimidex does not protect
me for this next go round.

Thanks for any info! By the way, I am one of the old-timers too but you
may not recognize my name. Because of intense spam, I have to change
everything ever so often on Webtv.

Trice

[Tim Jackson]

Radiation to the breast after lumpectomy is a quite different treatment
from radiation for metastases, and in different places. The first is a
repeated low-level wide area radiation, the second is a single high
intensity highly localised dose targeting a specific tumour. If you
have a lumpectomy plus radiation, and get a recurrence in the same
place, then you would usually follow up with a full mastectomy, without
radiation. I don't think it would be done to re-run radiation in the
same place.

But if you go to stage IV and get say metastasis in the hip, then there
is no reason why you can't have radiation to the hip. Likewise if you
get a new cancer in the other breast. The radiation isn't usually
limited by a whole-body dosage but by the local exposure of particular
tissues.

Chemo obviously is always a matter of whole body dose, and the answer is
different for each drug, and each patient.

Regarding your Arimidex, there is really no way of knowing how much it
is or isn't protecting you except by reference to historical statistics.
There is no test you can do on an individual patient to see how well
it is working, either you get cancer or you don't. Arimidex blocks the
production of estrogen, and so restricts the growth or development of
ER+ tumours, and so reduces your risk of getting another cancer.
However not all cancers are ER+, so there remains some residual risk
however much that one is reduced. So it is not really meaningful to ask
whether Arimidex might not protect you, only whether you can tolerate
it, or whether there is a better, newer drug available. And if you get
serious side effects, then indeed there are other options.

Tim