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1. Before you book a holiday
2. Preparing to travel
3. While you’re on holiday
Depending on the treatment you’re having, you may be able to travel during your treatment. However, for others you may be told to wait until treatment is finished.
Below is some general guidance, but it’s best to speak to your treatment team if you’re thinking about booking a holiday.
Depending on your individual treatment, your treatment team may advise you to wait up to four weeks to recover after finishing chemotherapy and radiotherapy before you travel.
Talk to your specialist or breast care nurse about what they would recommend for you.
You can usually travel during these treatments. However, you may need to consider how you feel while having treatment, and any side effects you may experience.
People taking the hormone therapy tamoxifen need to be aware of the risk of blood clots and ways to reduce this as long periods of inactivity can increase your risk of developing blood clots. If you’re planning a long-distance plane, car or train journey, you can get advice from your treatment team or GP.
Some targeted therapies may increase your risk of infection, so it’s important to talk to your treatment team about when it’s safe to travel.
If you’re having treatment for secondary breast cancer you may be able to take a treatment break to go on holiday. If you’re thinking about a holiday speak with your treatment team about the options available.
How soon you can travel will be different depending on the type of surgery you’ve had. You will usually need to wait a minimum of six weeks after surgery before you can fly. This is because there is an increased risk of blood clots and complications after surgery.
It’s important to check with your treatment team before booking any travel. You may also need to check with the airline on their policy for flying after surgery.
Find out more about travel insurance and breast cancer.
Speak to your treatment team to find out what you need to take on your holiday, such as medications you may need to take with you.
The following tips may help:
You can also speak to people who have been on holiday during or after breast cancer treatment on our Forum.
If you’re planning to travel somewhere that requires vaccinations, discuss your plans with your treatment team or GP first.
Live vaccinations are not recommended during chemotherapy or for six months afterwards. These vaccinations contain tiny amounts of live virus or bacteria. This is because they could cause serious infections. Live vaccinations include:
While inactivated vaccines are safe after treatment, they may be less effective if you have a weakened immune system. This may be the case in the first six months after chemotherapy. Check with your treatment team if you need these vaccinations. Inactivated vaccines include:
There’s currently no evidence that having injections in your at-risk arm will increase your risk of developing lymphoedema. However, you may prefer to have vaccinations in your other arm.
It’s safe to wear your prosthesis on the flight as aircraft cabins are pressurised.
If you prefer to pack your prosthesis in your main luggage, some small air bubbles may appear because the luggage hold is not pressurised. These will disappear shortly after you’re back on the ground and won’t harm your prosthesis.
Read about flying with a breast prosthesis.
If you have lymphoedema, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy a holiday, but you may need to take extra care.
Some tips for flying with lymphoedema:
If you don’t have lymphoedema you do not need to wear a compression garment while flying.
Read our information on sun care after breast cancer treatment.
After surgery you will need to wait until your wounds are fully healed. You can discuss swimming with your treatment team.
If you’re having chemotherapy you may also be advised to avoid swimming pools. This is because chemotherapy affects your immune system’s ability to fight infection, which might make you more susceptible to any germs in the water.
You may want to avoid swimming during radiotherapy and shortly afterwards, until any skin reactions have healed. Skin changes from radiotherapy can be irritated by chlorine or chemicals in the pool.
If you do want to go swimming while on holiday, it’s best to discuss it with your treatment team first.
Going on holiday can be a great way to relax and recharge your batteries if you’ve had breast cancer. Try to plan ahead and check that your travel plans are not too tiring. For example:
Macmillan have a booklet called Travel and breast cancer that you may find useful. You may also find Cancer Research UK’s travel tips useful.