CYBERMED LIFE - ORGANIC & NATURAL LIVING
Radiation therapy is a local treatment. Therefore, it only affects the area of the body where the tumor is located. For example, people do not usually lose their hair from having radiation therapy. But if radiation therapy is aimed at a part of the body that grows hair, such as the scalp, a person may have hair loss.
Skin problems. Some people who receive radiation therapy experience dryness, itching, blistering, or peeling. But these side effects often depend on which part of the body received radiation therapy. If you develop skin problem, they usually go away a few weeks after treatment has finished. If skin damage becomes a serious problem, the doctor may change your treatment plan.
Fatigue. Fatigue is feeling tired or exhausted almost all the time. Your level of fatigue depends on whether you are having other treatments, such as chemotherapy. Learn more about how to cope with fatigue.
Long-term side effects. Most side effects go away after treatment. But some continue, come back, or develop later. These late effects may include developing a second cancer. However, the risk of having a second cancer because of radiation therapy is low. This risk is often smaller than the benefit of treating the primary, existing cancer.
The use of chemotherapy treatment is often limited by toxic side-effects caused to healthy cells. In general, most chemotherapy treatments cause DNA damage or stop cells in mitosis, targeting both dividing cancer and dividing healthy cells (e.g. gut epithelium, bone marrow, hair follicle). Clearly, DNA damaging chemotherapy treatments may cause damage to both cancer and healthy cells to generate toxic side-effects