Do you just have the one tumor remaining? If it's one, then it's my understanding that with involved field radiation, they can minimize the exposure of other organs and tissue to the radiation. That would be my only concern - secondary cancers due to radiation. With my situation, I have small amounts of stuff spread all through my chest cavity, so radiation would not be a good option for me - too much exposure to other organs and tissue. There. That's my limited knowledge! Always good to meet with the radiation oncologist to see what your options are. You've had an amazing response to ABVD! 20cm to 8cm is great news. I hope my response is as robust!

in addition to the 8cm mass on my chest, i think my lymph nodes in my neck are still barely swollen but its under the neck muscle. My spleen as well is still enlarged but the doctor said all of these will slowly shrink over time

Hi,
My daughter was told 3-4 rounds of chemo before 20 readiation treatments, at 3 rounds(6 treatments of chemo) they felt her lymphs were still not small enough to start radiation and they had her do 4 rounds, she had in her chest and neck so I believe the chemo was a better option than longer radiation, though, 6 months after she finished radiation, she now has thyroid cancer, they say though, they feel she had it already but gallium scan did not detect it, while the follow up PET scan was more sensitive and found it. She was told that cause of the radiation, she was more likely to have secondary cancers, they had mentioned thyroid and breast cancer due to the radiation. I know being safe is better than sorry, I tell her that we will deal with each situation as it arises, and so far, shes strong and positive! You too, must look at the blessings in your life and if your doctors say more treatments, take them, its best to kill the cancer cells now. I wish you the best,

Thank you. Well we got a call yesterday saying they canceled the radiation consultation because it was not authorized. There was also a call from the doctor as well, though he did not specify anything in the message he left. We called this morning and all the nurses said was that they spoke to the tumor board. Now i can hear my mom yelling on the phone asking "why does he need more chemo?!" bummer, i already got my PICC line removed too. :/

Radiation is nothing compared to chemo for sure! But it does come with a lot of risks.. It ended up funking up my thyroid so that now I have hypothyroidism and I will be dealing with that for the rest of my life. A more immediate side effect was the burns I got from doing it. After a month of radiation I ended up with 3 sand dollar sized burns on the back of my neck that were like nothing I'd ever seen. Very different because they literally came from inside my skin.. Pretty painful for a while.. but they faded quickly! I would just recommend doing all with chemo you can first!

Hi ETopboy1209,

I would avoid general radiation and go for the involved field radiation.

I had radiation to the neck and chest years ago for cancer treatment.

I now have terrible teeth, no thyroid and nodules in my lungs all from this treatment because it was general.

Radiation to the neck in itself might make it difficult to eat at times.
I would still suggest doing it if it is directed.

ya they said it would be involved field radiation with one 14 day treatment of the lymph nodes in the neck and another 14 day treatment in the chest area. At the clinic they said that i would have minor side-effects since the treatment is so short. But the doctor strongly recommends it, especially because I'm a boy....Should start in the beginning of June :)