Do you think that radiotherapy does more harm than good and if you have had it would you recommend it ?

Question

My husband has had it and there has been so much damage done to his face that I no longer have faith in it.

He had to have a mask and was screwed down which was horrendous for him. His face has darkened...his tongue swollen and has ulcers...he has oedema in the neck...cant eat and now has to have a biopsy on the tongue. He is in constant pain whereas when he had the cancer there was no pain and he did not have all these difficulties. Have radiotherapy or die???? Personally I would rather die with dignity than to have all this. I would not recommend it to anyone.

Answer 1

Hi phantoms,well at one time i had the face mask made and was screwed to the table for 7 weeks,5 days in each week for throat cancer.I can say i did get burnt a lot and following this i was getting loads of earache.The tuma had been shrunk and they believed gone.But within 6 months it was back in the opposite side and i wasnt given long However i followed through with everything including wisdom teeth out and a complete trachea [neckbreather] Can i say that was nearly 8 years ago and an artery op on my leg soon followed the trachea i have been belting around ever since So i got through a black year and since have flown a lot and done a lot There is some light and i know just how it feels to want to give up but please dont just dont Seven blissfull years so Stay Lucky Be Lucky and move mountains just for me

Answer 2

Not everyone has the same cancer or the same experience with radiation. Sometimes there are few choices in these cases.

I am sorry that your husband has had such difficulties. There is no cure for cancer and all treatment received is a chance taken . . and the chance, of course, is to live. It is up to each individual to decide whether the treatment is worth it or not. There are no guarantees.

That being said, I do not know what type of cancer your husband suffers from or if the following treatment was ever an option for him. But, there are less intrusive means of radiation currently being offered. I don't know if your husband was a candidate or if you chose not to do this for whatever reason. But there is proton beam radiation therapy that will deliver radiation directly into the tumor and not damage the surrounding areas. The radiation is precise enough that it pinpoints only the tumor and so does not travel through the body and out the other side.

Proton Therapy
http://www.mdanderson.org/care_centers/radiationonco/ptc/

What is Proton Therapy
http://www.massgeneral.org/cancer/about/providers/radiation/proton/whatis.asp

Proton Beam Radiotherapy
http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/ProtonBeam/Default.htm

Best to you. Stay strong.

Answer 3

I had two courses of chemiotherapy. Problem with radiotherapy is that it doesn't only destroy cancer cells but healthy ones as well. Side effects were horrendous too and i told oncologist that, should i need a third course i would pass. Then years later .. I had to have a new course. I didn't want to, but chemiotherapy had improved. I had it, because my children begged me to. We'd just been bereaved, my mother had died. They couldn't cope with my declining another course. So i had it. Don't get me wrong i was still sick, but not as bad as previous. That was 3 years ago and i got the all clear.

Because it's on his face he probably feels feels conscious about the damage to his face. And indeed it does cause damage but then, better that than dying surely?

My face wasn't affected but i lost my hair twice. For a woman ... It's worse than it would be for a man. My voice was affected too and i have just finished dental treatment because it affected, not only my teeth but also my gums. They took a bashing with chemiotherapy and i often thought i'd had it! No hair, at risk to lose my teeth as well ... I was at an all time low.

If it helps, tell your husband that sometimes we don't feel like fighting any more. It's not being cowards, simply seeing no end to it, no recovery, no being/Looking what we were prior to chemio but in the end ... There are those who love us, don't want us to die and we do it for them, simply because we love them, don't want to hurt them.

In my case, i'm grand now! Full head of hair, no lost teeth and when it comes to the chemio ... It's just in the past. Chemio wasn't the enemy, cancer was!

Best wishes

Answer 4

I don't think anyone would actually recommend radiotherapy if there was an alternative, but there isn't. My heart bleeds for your husband but if all this treatment gets rid of the cancer you will eventually think it was worth it.
I had breast cancer and after having a mastectomy I had to have both chemotherapy and radiotherapy but I can honestly say that my experience was nothing like that of your husband and I feel very fortunate. Not everyone's experience is so bad.
I really hope your husband makes a full recovery.

Answer 5

Radiation Therapy - For different cancers depending on the stage and organs affected different degree of radiation is given. The main purpose of giving radiation is to kill the cancerous cells completely and most of the time it gives very severe after effects. We have to put up with it, as otherwise the disease will kill the patient. However the following after care efforts are to be taken -

Many patients experience skin burn, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting after radiation therapy regardless of the where radiation is applied. After treatment, the skin around the site of the treatment may also become sore. Affected skin should be kept clean and can be treated like sunburn, with skin lotion or vitamin A and D ointment. Patients should avoid perfume and scented skin products and protect affected areas from the sun.

Nausea and vomiting are most likely to occur when the radiation dose is high or if the abdomen or another part of the digestive tract is irradiated. Sometimes nausea and vomiting occur after radiation to other regions, but in these cases the symptoms usually disappear within a few hours after treatment. Nausea and vomiting can be treated with antacids, Compazine, Tigan, or Zofran.

Fatigue frequently starts after the second week of therapy and may continue until about two weeks after the therapy is finished. Patients may need to limit their activities, take naps, and get extra sleep at night.

Patients should see their oncologist (cancer doctor) at least once within the first few weeks after their final radiation treatment. They should also see an oncologist every six to twelve months for the rest of their lives so they can be checked to see if the tumor has reappeared or spread.-

Answer 6

I sympathise and empathise with what you are saying, my mother had lung cancer which spread to her brain 3 years ago, they recommended radiotherapy both times, with the lung treatment she was very tired a lot of the time and it really knocked her sideways. However with the treatment for the brain tumour, she lost her hair, it lowered her resistance to anything else, and as a consequence of that, a common cold turned to Pneumonia and that was her cause of death. I wonder if she had not had the treatment would she still be here now? But it was her choice to go ahead with it, she felt that this treatment would buy her time and she was prepared to do anything that she thought would make her better even if it was for a short time.
It might disfigure him for a time, but we are aware of the alternative and that just dont bear thinking about.
I am sending you both lots of peace, love and strength. Good Luck xxx

Answer 7

I had it on the side I had breast cancer.It takes a long time to heal.I applied aloe vera gel to the skin, and I kept this in the fridge so it was soothing to apply.The hospital also gave me these new clear gel sheets that were so cold (I had to keep these in the fridge too) and that would take some of the heat out of the skin.Hope your husband heals well, it will take time.

Answer 8

One of my friends has just started a 6 week course on his head. I didn't realise that it could cause any long term damage.

Surely there is no other alternative though if you want to get rid of the remains of a tumour??

Answer 9

It depends if it was a choice between scarring and living or no scar and dying I think I'd go with the scar