Some women develop a hardening or thickening of the breast tissue after radiotherapy. This is called fibrosis. The breast may also shrink slightly over time. This can cause the breast to become harder and smaller than it was.
Changes in the shape, size, and feel of the breast
In time radiotherapy can cause the breast tissue to change shape or shrink in size a little. This can happen to your natural breast tissue or a reconstructed breast. After radiotherapy, the breast might feel hard and less stretchy.
Common side effects during treatment may include: Mild to moderate fatigue. Skin irritation, such as itchiness, redness, peeling or blistering, similar to what you might experience with a sunburn. Breast swelling.
Breasts can shrink for many reasons, including hormonal changes during menopause or simple weight loss. But if one breast beings to shrink while the other remains the same size, it may be caused by a tumor developing around your chest wall. This pulls in the breast tissue, making the breast appear smaller.
Long-term effects of radiation therapy.
Some survivors experience breathlessness, a dry cough, and/or chest pain 2 to 3 months after finishing radiation therapy. That is because radiation therapy can cause swelling and a hardening or thickening of the lungs called fibrosis.
Your health care team may advise you to avoid exposing the treated skin to the sun because it could make the skin changes worse. Most skin changes get better within a few months. Changes to the breast tissue usually go away in 6 to 12 months, but it can take longer.
If you remain in complete remission for five years or more, some doctors may say that you are cured, or cancer-free.
As estrogen levels decrease, your breast tissue changes. The tissue in your breasts gets dehydrated and isn't as elastic as it used to be. This can lead to a loss of volume, and your breasts may shrink as much as a cup size.
Your skin may turn pink, red, tanned, or look like it has sunburn. The skin in the folds under your arm and breast, over your collar bone, and in other parts of the treatment area that have been in the sun may blister and peel. Your skin may become very sensitive and itchy.
If you need radiotherapy, your treatment will begin about a month after your surgery or chemotherapy to give your body a chance to recover. You'll probably have radiotherapy sessions 3 to 5 days a week, for 3 to 5 weeks.
Most people start to feel tired after a few weeks of radiation therapy. This happens because radiation treatments destroy some healthy cells as well as the cancer cells. Fatigue usually gets worse as treatment goes on. Stress from being sick and daily trips for treatment can make fatigue worse.
Radiation can give you fatigue that gets worse over time (called cumulative fatigue). It usually lasts 3 to 4 weeks after your treatment stops, but it can continue for up to 3 months. Hormone therapy deprives the body of estrogen, and that can lead to fatigue that may last throughout your treatment or longer.
Breast edema that manifests as skin and trabecular thickening appears generally in the first several weeks after completion of radiation therapy (Figs. 3, 4). Initially, there is engorgement of the dermal as well as of the intramammary lymphatics (trabecular thickening).
Cosmetic issues
Because some tissue is removed, the breast may be smaller. There will also be a scar and some numbness. Ask your health care provider about products that might help reduce the appearance of the scar. Radiation therapy (usually given after lumpectomy) can also affect the look of the breast.
Typically, people have treatment sessions 5 times per week, Monday through Friday. This schedule usually continues for 3 to 9 weeks, depending on your personal treatment plan. This type of radiation therapy only targets the tumor. But it will affect some healthy tissue surrounding the tumor.
Loss of appetite
Feeling sick and tired during radiotherapy can make you lose your appetite, which could lead to weight loss. But it's important to try to eat healthily and maintain your weight during treatment. Tell your care team if you do not feel you're eating enough.
Avoid raw vegetables and fruits, and other hard, dry foods such as chips or pretzels. It's also best to avoid salty, spicy or acidic foods if you are experiencing these symptoms. Your care team can recommend nutrient-based oral care solutions if you are experiencing mucositis or mouth sores caused by cancer treatment.
Feeling very tired and lacking energy (fatigue) for day-to-day activities is the most common side effect of radiation therapy to any area of the body. During treatment, your body uses a lot of energy dealing with the effects of radiation on normal cells.
When it comes to early stages of disease, patients very frequently do well with either brachytherapy or external beam radiation. Success rates of around 90% or higher can be achieved with either approach.
When you lose weight, you tend to lose fat from your breast area. If you are doing cardio regularly, you will lose both muscles and fat from your breasts. It is important that you must focus on strength training which in turn builds chest muscles. This will help in maintaining perfect breast size.
Estrogen levels dramatically decrease. This leads to many of the symptoms commonly linked to menopause. Without estrogen, the breast's connective tissue becomes dehydrated and is no longer elastic. The breast tissue, which was prepared to make milk, shrinks and loses shape.
No food or diet plan has been clinically proven to increase breast size. There are also no supplements, pumps, or creams that can make breasts larger. The best natural way to enhance the look of your breasts is to do exercises that strengthen the chest, back, and shoulder area. Good posture also helps.
Aggressive, hard-to-treat breast cancers, such as inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), are the types most likely to recur.
In most cases, recurrent cancers appear within the first three years after treatment. But in some cases, the disease may return many years later, either locally or in distant organs in the body.
Treatment for breast cancer will be successful for most people, and the risk of recurrence gets less as time goes on. Recurrence, unfortunately, can happen even many years after treatment, so no one can say with certainty that you're definitely cured.