Aww...Thanks! and Radiation Info

I was reading your comments on the wig. I'm glad you all approve. It makes me feel better that wig shopping turned out so well. If you come by and visit, I'll show you how it looks like real scalp on top!

So, I got an e-mail from my radiation oncologist yesterday. He's the one designing the radiation treatment and heading the clinical trial I am on.

He wrote: With this new plan [with the breathing apparatus] less than 10% of the heart will receive 200+ rads. That is a very very small dose.

Is this good enough? Dr. RadOnc seems to think so.

So I searched on the web for an idea of what 200 rads is.

1) On breastcancer.org,
rad = centiGray (cGy)
Radiation treatment is given in low doses daily, and the total cumulative dose is calculated.
For breast cancer, each daily session is usually 180-200 rads.

For radiation to the whole breast and/or lymph node areas, the usual total dose is about 4500–5000 centiGrays over 5 weeks. Your doctor may then recommend an additional 1000–2000 centiGrays over 1 week delivered as a boost, targeted to the area where the tumor used to be.

Partial-breast radiation with external beam or internal radiation usually involves a total dose of 3400 centiGrays given over 1 week.

So I guess that 10% of my heart will have had about 1 daily dose of radiation treatment in a 25-day treatment plan.

2) Online book Radiation Toxicity: A Practical Guide

Editors: William Small Jr. and Gayle Woloschak

It only had the section on skin online. I guess I have to get the book to find out the effects on the heart.

"...fields treated with 2 Gy [200 cGy] daily fractionation do not show changes in basal cell density until total doses of 20-25 Gy [2000-2500 cGy] are delivered."

Greater than 45 Gy can cause dry, flaking skin with 2 Gy fractionation

I don't expect the cosmetic results of radiation treatment to be bad. A recent small clinical trial here at Hopkins that combined Adriamycin chemotherapy and partial breast radiation showed that the women tolerated the radiation treatment very well. The one I'm in allows any type of chemo treatment and partial breast radiation. As a part of the trial, the skin changes will be documented so there may pictures of my bust in a journal one day...