Radiation therapy can harm normal tissue, so it needs to be carefully planned and precisely given. This helps ensure the radiation kills as many cancer cells as possible while doing as little damage as possible to other parts of your body.
Radiation therapy is planned specifically for your breast cancer and the shape of your body, so sessions cannot be split between different treatment centers.
Your therapy plan is based on:
Your radiation oncologist oversees the radiation planning session.
You will lie on a special table while the radiation oncologist decides the proper dose of radiation and where to give the radiation. He/she will use a CT scan to guide the radiation planning.
During the planning session, the radiation oncologist will put small marks (about the size of a pinhead) on your skin. These marks ensure you are correctly positioned for each treatment. They may be ink spots, or they may be tattoos. If they are ink spots, it is important not to wash them off until after you finish radiation therapy.
Sometimes, you will be asked to hold your breath during the planning session. This is one way to avoid radiation exposure to the heart.
Your radiation oncologist leads a team of technicians and nurses. The team will work with you at each radiation therapy session.
During each session, you will lie on a special table. Most often, your entire breast will be given a dose of radiation. Again, sometimes you will be asked to hold your breath while the radiation is given. This is one way to avoid radiation exposure to the heart.
If lymph nodes were removed during surgery and contained cancer, often the area around the lymph nodes is also treated with radiation. Learn more about lymph nodes.
Each session lasts about 20 minutes. Most of this time is spent positioning your body to ensure the treatment is given exactly as planned.
Treatment is usually given once a day, 5 days a week, for 3-7 weeks. The schedule of radiation sessions is designed to treat your breast cancer and varies from person to person.
Some women may get a shortened course (only 3-4 weeks) of radiation therapy . This is called accelerated, hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation. It is like standard radiation therapy except it uses a slightly higher dose of radiation per session (hypofractionation). This reduces the number of treatment sessions (making this an accelerated therapy).
Studies have shown that in general, accelerated, hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation is as effective as standard radiation therapy .
After radiation therapy to the whole breast, you may have more radiation (called a boost) to the part of the breast that had the original tumor.
This boost radiation is given to increase the amount of radiation therapy given to the area at highest risk for breast cancer recurrence.
Your boost radiation session is similar to a regular session.
Things to remember while going through radiation therapy
Adapted from the National Cancer Institute materials .
If you do not live near the radiation treatment center, it can be hard to get to and from therapy sessions. Sometimes, there are programs that offer help with local or long-distance transportation and lodging.
There are also programs to help you with child care and elder care costs.
Learn more about transportation, lodging, child care and elder care assistance.
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