Radiotherapy side effects

What is radiotherapy to relieve symptoms? Radiotherapy to relieve symptoms is also known as palliative radiotherapy. Palliative radiotherapy aims to shrink cancer, slow down its growth or control symptoms. It doesn't aim to cure cancer. Depending on the type of cancer you have, and where it has spread to, you might have external or internal radiotherapy. External radiotherapy is the use of radiation to destroy cancer cells from outside of the body. Whereas internal radiotherapy means having radiation treatment from inside the body. • When you might have palliative radiotherapy You might have palliative radiotherapy to: • relieve bone pain • treat pressure on the spinal cord (spinal cord compression) • shrink a tumour to relieve pressure or a blockage • treat symptoms of cancer in the brain • treat symptoms of cancer in the lungs • control an ulcerating cancer and reduce bleeding • treat a blood vessel blockage in the chest called superior vena cava obstruction (SVCO) Not all cancers respond well to radiotherapy. So other treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or targeted cancer drugs may be more help. Your specialist will talk to you about the best choice of treatment in your case. • Radiotherapy planning You usually have a scan before you start radiotherapy. Your doctor uses the scan to plan your treatment. The position that you are in for this scan is the same position that you will be in for your treatment. Let a member of the team know if you are str...

Radiotherapy may cause short-term or long-term effects. These may only last while you have the treatment or may last for weeks, months or years after treatment has finished. It is important to remember that not everyone gets all possible side effects and there are ways to manage any side effects you do get. Your healthcare team will tell you more about what to expect. If you are having chemoradiation, you will also be coping with side effects caused by chemotherapy. Your skin may be sore on the outside of your genitals (vulva) and the area around your bottom (back passage). Using a moisturiser everyday can help. While you are having radiotherapy, do not: • shave • wax • use hair removal cream. If you want to use these products, wait until radiotherapy has finished and your skin is no longer red or sore. Be extra careful to protect the skin in the area where you’ve had radiotherapy for at least the first year afterwards. Don’t use sunbeds and use high factor sunscreen if part or all of the area will be exposed – for example, if you are wearing a bikini. This sore skin may also cause pain (stinging) when you wee. Let your healthcare team know about your symptoms as soon as possible, so they can help. Radiotherapy can make you feel very tired and physically weak. This is called fatigue. It is not like usual tiredness – you may feel exhausted after doing nothing. This is simply your body responding to the treatment, as it tries to repair any healthy cells the radiotherapy has ...

Thousands of bowel cancer patients could be spared radiotherapy, a study suggests, after doctors discovered they could rely on chemotherapy and surgery alone to treat their disease. Radiotherapy has been used to treat bowel cancer patients for decades, but the side-effects can be brutal. It can cause problems that negatively affect quality of life, including infertility, the need for a temporary colostomy, diarrhoea, cramping and bladder problems. Read more The research was presented on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), the world’s largest cancer conference, in Chicago. The results were also simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “Omitting radiation therapy can reduce short- and long-term side-effects that impact quality of life while providing similar outcomes in disease-free survival and overall survival,” Asco announced in a briefing paper. In the study led by doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering One group received the standard treatment, radiation followed by surgery, and then, after the patients recovered from surgery, chemotherapy at their doctor’s discretion. The other group received the experimental treatment, which consisted of chemotherapy first, followed by surgery. At their doctor’s discretion, another round of chemotherapy could be given. Radiotherapy did not improve outcomes, the study found. After 18 months, there was no difference between the two gr...

Side effects of radiotherapy Side effects tend to start a few days after you start radiotherapy. They gradually get worse over the days and weeks of your treatment. They can continue to get worse after your treatment ends. But they usually start to get better after 2 or 3 weeks. Getting over a long course of treatment completely can take quite a few months. If you had chemotherapy at the same time as radiotherapy, it can take a few months for the side effects to settle. Voice over: Radiotherapy can cause many different side effects, such as tiredness. The side effects you get will depend on the area you're having treatment to. This video is about the side effects you might have when having radiotherapy to the head and neck. Sore mouth Louise: Mouth soreness and throat soreness with head and neck radiotherapy is very common unfortunately. If the soreness is on the outside on your skin, they might recommend particular creams that you can use to help with that. If the pain is internal, you may be referred to the doctor and the doctor will suggest some medication to help control the pain. Charlie: Probably I think it was from week 2 to week 3 when the radiotherapy side effects started really impacting me. At that point, really, I was unable to eat. The ability to take food down your food tract with that level of inflammation and ulcers was just too difficult. Louise: Mouth soreness can continue for up to 3 months. The team will support you during that time, whether that be wit...