Patients completed the survey a median of 31 months (range 6-61 months) after completing radiation therapy. Survey questions assessed fears and beliefs about breast cancer treatment and side effects, as well as how the actual experience compared to initial expectations. Specifically, patients were asked if the treatment experience, short-term side effects and long-term side effects were as expected, worse than expected or better than expected.

Nine in ten patients (90%) found the actual experience of breast radiation therapy to be "less scary" than anticipated. Overall short-term and long-term side effects of radiation were better than expected or as expected for 83 percent and 84 percent of respondents, respectively. Patients also reported that side effects were less severe than or as expected for short-term breast pain (75%), skin changes (61%) and fatigue (78%), as well as for long-term appearance changes (85%), breast pain (79%), breast size changes (73%) and breast textural changes (70%).


More than two-thirds (68%) of these breast cancer patients reported that they had little to no prior knowledge of radiation therapy at the time of their diagnosis, yet nearly half (47%) also shared that they had previously read or heard "frightening" stories of serious side effects from radiation therapy. Nearly all women surveyed (94%) responded that they were initially fearful of receiving radiation therapy. The most common initial fears related to radiation therapy were concerns about damage to internal organs (40%), skin burning (24%) and becoming radioactive (7%). Very few patients found confirmation for these negative stories during treatment, however; among 327 respondents, eight women (3%) found the negative stories they previously read about radiation therapy to be true and six women (2%) found the negative stories they heard from family and friends to be true. The trend of finding negative stories to be largely untrue was even more pronounced among patients who underwent breast conservation therapy. Nine in ten survey respondents agreed that "After treatment, I now realize that radiation therapy is not as bad as they say it is," and/or that "If future patients knew the 'real truth' about radiation therapy, they would be less scared about treatment."

"We hope that these data, which reflect the voices of past breast cancer patients, can help to counsel future patients and their physicians on the actualities of the modern breast radiation therapy experience," said Dr. Shaverdian. "Patients who have received this treatment provide the most credible account of its actual impact, and their accounts show that outdated, negative stereotypes of breast radiation are almost universally found to be untrue."

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