Gino, I'd strongly recommend getting a second opinion from another CCC. I also had an early stage cancer (I had no signs of cancer in my nodes at all) and, as you can see from my "signature", I ended up getting the whole treatment--including chemo. But the first opinion I got (which was from a CCC) was ambivalent about whether I even needed radiation! I went to another CCC, one of the top 5 in the country, and got a much more aggressive recommendation and an explanation I could understand about WHY they recommended that.

So even opinions at CCCs will differ. I picked the second-opinion CCC because I knew they'd be pretty aggressive and I figured if they said I didn't need a treatment or that it was optional, I was really OK not doing it. Unfortunately they didn't say that.

Chemo makes the whole radiation treatment harder, more so for some people than for others (there are people here who sailed through their chemo with no serious effects from it) but it also makes it more effective. How much more effective is debatable for those of us who are Stage I or II, there's not clear data on it, but actually if you had cancer in one of your lymph nodes (microscopic or not), I'm not sure that you technically are stage I or II anymore.

Get a seond opinion at another CCC and if they agree you don't need chemo, you're pretty safe not doing it I'd say.

Nelie