You shouldn't be worried but should be aware that radiotherapy is effective for cancer but causes side effects, mostly temporary (fatigue, skin issues, nausea) as healthy cells repair, though long-term effects are possible depending on the treated area. Modern techniques minimize harm, and your medical team manages side effects with supportive care, so open communication about symptoms is key.
Side effects include radiation damage to healthy tissue. Within a few days of starting treatment, some patients may develop nausea and fever, skin reddening and hair loss. These symptoms will improve as the treatment progresses. Some patients may develop skin damage later in their treatment.
Radiation not only kills or slows the growth of cancer cells, it can also affect nearby healthy cells. Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects. Many people who get radiation therapy have fatigue. Fatigue is feeling exhausted and worn out.
Fatigue (feeling tired physically, mentally, and/or emotionally) is a very common side effect of radiation therapy. This happens because radiation treatments destroy some healthy cells along with the cancer cells. Stress from being sick and daily trips for treatment can make fatigue worse.
Radiation therapy has a 90-95% success rate in stage I, 85-90 % success rate in stage II, and 75-80% success rate in stage III. After radiation therapy, the patient is advised to visit the doctor for follow-up every three months.
Radiotherapy is an effective cancer treatment and is able to work on most types of cancer. About half of all people with cancer will have radiotherapy either by itself or with other treatments. 4 out of 10 people who have their cancer cured have had radiotherapy as part of their treatment plan.
Types of cancer that are treated with radiation therapy
Brachytherapy is most often used to treat cancers of the head and neck, breast, cervix, prostate, and eye. A type of brachytherapy called radioembolization may be used to treat liver cancer or cancer that has spread to the liver.
For example, the following tissues and organs are listed from most radiosensitive to least radiosensitive:
Many people having radiotherapy feel tired (fatigued) a lot of the time or become tired very easily from doing everyday activities. This usually starts during treatment and can continue for several weeks or months after treatment finishes. It can help to: get plenty of rest.
Missed Radiation Therapy Sessions Increase Risk of Cancer Recurrence. Patients who miss radiation therapy sessions during cancer treatment have an increased risk of their disease returning, even if they eventually complete their course of radiation treatment, according to a new study.
Traditional radiation delivers x-rays, or beams of photons, to the tumor and beyond it. This can damage nearby healthy tissues and can cause significant side effects. By contrast, proton therapy delivers a beam of proton particles that stops at the tumor, so it's less likely to damage nearby healthy tissues.
You are likely to feel well enough to work when you first start your radiation treatments. As time passes, do not be surprised if you feel more tired, have less energy, or feel weak. Once you have finished treatment, it may take a few weeks or months to feel better.
After treatment is completed, follow-up appointments will be scheduled so that your radiation oncologist can make sure your recovery is proceeding normally and can continue to monitor your health status. Your radiation oncologist may also order additional diagnostic tests.
Try to eat nourishing food, drink lots of water, limit the amount of alcohol you drink, get enough sleep, and balance rest and physical activity. Regular exercise and good nutrition can help reduce some of the side effects of radiation therapy.
It's common to get therapy five days a week over several weeks. Some treatment courses are given over 1 to 2 weeks. The treatment is spread out this way so that healthy cells have time to recover between sessions. Sometimes only one treatment is used to relieve pain or other symptoms from more advanced cancers.
While chemotherapy aims to keep the disease from spreading, radiation focuses on particular cells. Chemotherapy can also affect the entire body, while radiation repairs only the affected cells. Both treatments can cause side effects, including hair loss, nausea and fatigue.
During your course of treatment or after treatments you may have some pain. You may experience some of these side effects depending on the treatment area and how much radiation you are receiving: Skin sensitivity (pain or discomfort) in the treatment area. Developing a sunburn effect in the treatment area is common.
Fatigue from chemotherapy tends to be the worst a few days after treatment and then gets better before the next treatment. Fatigue from radiation can start slowly after a few weeks of treatment and get worse as treatment goes on. It may last many months after treatment is finished.
Ionizing Radiation
Bone and soft-tissue sarcomas are the most frequent SMNs following radiation therapy, but skin, brain, thyroid, and breast cancers also can occur. Radiation doses less than 30 Gy tend to be associated with thyroid and brain tumors, whereas doses greater than 30 Gy can evoke secondary sarcomas.
Fetal Effects - The embryo/fetus is particularly sensitive to radiation. Some studies have shown increases in the rates of childhood cancer in children exposed to radiation before birth. Cancer - Cancer is the most common non-threshold effect of high radiation doses in humans.
Within 4 h after irradiation, bone marrow cell and splenocyte depletion was first observed. Twenty-four hour later, circulating neutrophil and lymphocyte counts were significantly decreased due to lack of matured neutrophils and lymphocytes mobilized from bone marrow.
Lung and bronchus, colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancers are responsible for nearly 50% of all deaths.
While radioresponsive tumors start to shrink in a few days, most head and neck cancers may take weeks or longer to shrink. Some low-grade, slowly proliferating tumors histologically appear to be viable for prolonged periods after irradiation.
These scans provide detailed images of the inside of your body, helping your radiotherapy team to plan your treatment accurately and effectively. By using these images, they can carefully target the cancer while protecting healthy tissues, making your treatment safer and more precise.