Posting  for Nell:
Hi,
 
I have  never figured out how to reply to Lactnet group, but occasionally 
reply  individually. I am a nurse in women’s health, IBCLC (since 1989), and 
La Leche  League leader. Radiation if it is in the form of and x-ray or 
radiation  treatment does not stay in your body. There would be no radiation in 
the milk  whatsoever, not even from cancer treatment doses. The mother may 
feel ill,  because it does kill rapidly dividing cells in the area irradiated 
and there are  effects from that. There is always danger with radiation 
treatments that DNA  will be damaged and that new cancers can arise at some 
time in the future. (You  have to have a future for this to happen and there 
might not be a future if you  don’t have the treatment---risk versus benefits 
as always.) I suppose there is a  very, very small theoretical risk that DNA 
in milk cells could be altered, but  there is also a risk from not 
breastfeeding.
 
If a  radioactive substance is injected into bloodstream, now that is 
another matter  altogether, but I don’t think that would be the case with this 
situation.
 
The  only other thing that would be of concern is if they were implanting 
radioactive  “seeds” into the area. This is not a treatment that I have 
heard of being used  much recently, but in the past I have heard of it for 
prostate cancer and other  localized tumors. In the case of implanted radioactive 
devices, the mother would  not be allowed contact with the baby for a 
period of time, because she would be  radioactive and exposing anyone with close 
contact to small doses of  radiation.
 
I  attended an i-lactation breastfeeding lecture on radiation several 
months back,  but mostly I know this stuff from my job. Hope this helps.
 
Nell


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