Some people are able to work full-time during radiation therapy. Others can work only part-time or not at all. How much you are able to work depends on how you feel. Ask your doctor or nurse what to expect from your treatment.
Median follow-up time for this report was 41 months (range=14.6-59.0). Following treatment with stereotactic radiation, more than eight in ten patients (84%) survived at least 1 year, and four in ten (43%) survived 5 years or longer. The median overall survival (OS) time was 42.3 months.
Healthy cells that are damaged during radiation treatment usually recover within a few months after treatment is over. But sometimes people may have side effects that do not improve. Other side effects may show up months or years after radiation therapy is over. These are called late effects.
For some people, radiation may be the only treatment you need. But, most often, you will have radiation therapy with other cancer treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Radiation therapy may be given before, during, or after these other treatments to improve the chances that treatment will work.
Radiotherapy may be used in the early stages of cancer or after it has started to spread. It can be used to: try to cure the cancer completely (curative radiotherapy) make other treatments more effective – for example, it can be combined with chemotherapy or used before surgery (neo-adjuvant radiotherapy)
Radiotherapy with the aim of curing cancer usually lasts between 1 to 7 weeks. For radiotherapy to relieve symptoms, you might have anything between a single treatment to 2 weeks of treatment. It might be longer than this. Your doctor will tell you how many treatments you'll have.
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.
If you remain in complete remission for 5 years or more, some doctors may say that you are cured. Still, some cancer cells can remain in your body for many years after treatment. These cells may cause the cancer to come back one day. For cancers that return, most do so within the first 5 years after treatment.
When a person does undergo radiation therapy, the risk of recurrence is 5–10% compared with 20–40% in those who do not receive this treatment.
During radiation treatment, the mean weight loss was 4.33 kg, and 53.6% (1303) patients had high weight loss (HWL; ΔW≥5%). The proportion of HWL was higher in patients with advanced T stage, N stage, high BMI level and who received chemotherapy.
In some people, radiotherapy can make your skin sore, change colour (it might become red, lighter or darker than your normal skin tone), or dry and itchy. Sometimes it can blister and peel. This tends to start 1 to 2 weeks after treatment begins. Tell your care team if you notice any soreness or changes to your skin.
Radiotherapy is usually given as a number of individual treatments delivering a small dose of radiation daily over several weeks. Most people have 5 treatments a week (one treatment a day from Monday to Friday), with a break at the weekend.
Breast cancer: Women with breast cancer have an overall 30% chance of recurrence. Many cases happen within five years of completing the initial treatment. Cervical cancer: Of those with invasive cervical cancer, an estimated 35% will have a recurrence.
Survival rates are also described based on whether the cancer is localized, has spread to nearby tissues, or is metastatic. The overall five-year survival rate of all stages combined is 7%.
The percentage of people in a study or treatment group who are alive five years after they were diagnosed with or started treatment for a disease, such as cancer. The disease may or may not have come back.
Although radiation therapy effectively treats many types of cancer, it may also increase your likelihood of developing a different cancer in the future. For many people, the benefits of radiation therapy are worth the risk.
It is normal to feel tired and upset at some points during radiotherapy. Or you might feel anxious. Many people having radiotherapy share these feelings. You might feel low or depressed a couple of weeks after your treatment has finished.
Don't wear tight clothing over the treatment area. It's important not to rub, scrub or scratch any sensitive spots. Also avoid putting anything that is very hot or very cold—such as heating pads or ice packs—on your treated skin.
Radiation promotes the release of cytokines and growth factors through the induction of a damage response [54]. Secreted by tumor, immune, or normal cells, many of these cytokines are involved in promoting tumor cell migration, invasion, and metastasis following radiotherapy.
Cancer may sometimes come back after cancer drug treatment or radiotherapy. This can happen because the treatment didn't destroy all the cancer cells. Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells by attacking cells that are in the process of doubling to form 2 new cells.
It can happen weeks, months, or even years after the original cancer was treated. It is not possible to know for sure if cancer will come back after your treatment ends. The chance of a cancer coming back depends on the type and stage of cancer you had.
Long courses of treatment are generally not required and in most cases patients are treated with as few as 1 or 2 treatments or up to 10 treatments.
Moreover, the typical radiation therapy cost in India varies and ranges from Rs. 50,000* to Rs 1,00,000*. Radiation therapists are in charge of providing radiation therapy to patients securely and efficiently. They use advanced technology to target cancer cells while minimising exposure to healthy tissues.
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.