hypoechoic masses

           I'm 44 yrs old & was diagnosed having breast cancer  III-B on my left breast. I was mastectomy operated last December 2009.
           I didn't undergone chemotherapy after my operation,'coz as far as i've known this can't give full assurance for me that i will be cured & I can't afford financially,also considering that chemotherapy have plenty of side effects.Instead,I go with Homeopathic treatment.
          I feel better like before i was diagnosed.But,lately I felt something on my chest,particularly on the upper part of my operation scars.I underwent chest ultrasound and the result stated that there are multiple hypoechoic masses.
    a) what is hypoechoic masses? can these bring my health condition into risk?
    b) Is it true that chemotherapy can eventually affect the liver and kidney of the patient, aside of its immediate side effects such as hair loss; vomiting; etc.
    c) I've gone in a tumor marker test (CA 15-3) and based in the result,I have 9.6 out of 25 below as normal level for tumor risk.Is this mean that these multiple hypoechoic masses are not malignant? What will I do with these? I'm still about to go to my homeopathic doctor,but i just want to hear opinion from others concerned.
    d)  My surgeon says radiation will affect slighly to my lungs and heart which i really dont agree with it, 'coz my lungs & heart is in normal function.
    e) Is there really a cure for cancer patients w/o affecting some other vital organs in our body ?
  I still have plenty of questions and clarifications regarding these matters.I need your opinions and suggestions.

Thanks,
Cancerian

[Cleveland Clinic]

Dear Cancerian, a) A hypoechoic mass is a lump which appears relatively darker on an ultrasound scan, because it reflects fewer ultrasound waves. The significance of this finding varies depending on the context. Some tissues normally reflect more or less ultrasound waves than others. When part of an organ changes to reflect more or less ultrasound waves than usual, with the result that it appears brighter or darker than the surrounding tissue, this could indicate an area of disease.  This finding would need to be put into context of the rest of the report, your health history and physical examination by your doctor.
b) Different chemotherapy medications have different side effects, different mechanisms of action (ways they work against cancer cells) as well as different ways they are excreted from the body.  These features of chemotherapy are all taken into account when these medications are being prescribed for treatment of cancer.  Chemotherapy medications can effect normal cells as well as the abnormal cancer cells so monitoring of organ function is part of the plan of care of patients undergoing chemotherapy for the treatment for cancer in order to give these medications as safely as possible.
c) CA 15-3 test is a tumor marker and measures the antigen CA 15-3 that may be found on breast cancer cells.  This test is not sensitive enough or specific enough to be considered as a useful tool for cancer screening.  It is not appropriate to interpret the result in isolation so may be used in conjunction with other test information (such as mammograms, scans, physical exam) to check for recurrence of breast cancer, and sometimes it is ordered to give a general sense of how much cancer may be present. In other words this test does not say that these hypoechoic masses are not cancer, the only “for sure” method of distinguishing whether these hypoechoic masses are cancerous or not is through biopsy.
d) Radiation to the breast to treat cancer is aimed at the breast, and care is taken to shield other structures from any scatter of radiation to the surrounding normal tissue particularly the heart and lungs.
e) The treatment of cancer does involve some risk to organs.  There is variability in risk depending on the medication, the overall health of the individual person, the cancer, the prior treatment a person has had etc.  The oncologist is the best person to discuss the risks and benefits of a particular treatment in context of the individual patient situation.