However breast fibrosis can also be long term side effect of radiotherapy.
Side effect of radiotherapy for breast cancer.
Other side effects depend on the part of the body that is being treated.
Some people have few or no side effects while others have quite a few.
In rare cases radiation therapy to the breast can cause a second cancer.
Learn more about possible side effects.
You may hear your doctor refer to it as breast fibrosis or glandular atrophy or radiation fibrosis syndrome rfs.
The x rays or particles are painless and invisible.
Just as the benefits of radiation are gradual you ll usually see a gradual onset of side effects.
Doctors may recommend this therapy in combination with others such as surgery and chemotherapy.
Radiation therapy for breast cancer uses high energy x rays protons or other particles to kill cancer cells.
Radiotherapy for breast cancer.
For women who are long term smokers radiation therapy may also increase the risk of lung cancer.
Radiation therapy has side effects because it not only kills or slows the growth of cancer cells it can also affect nearby healthy cells.
Radiation therapy and risk of a second cancer.
The most common cancers linked to radiation therapy are sarcomas cancers of the connective tissue.
This is known as fibrosis.
Find out about the side effects of external radiotherapy for breast cancer and how to cope with them.
The effects can start after a couple of weeks of treatment.
They continue to get worse during the treatment and after the treatment has finished.
In this case breast fibrosis is a direct result of radiation damaging your skin s elasticity.
Many people who get radiation therapy experience fatigue.
Rapidly growing cells such as cancer cells are more susceptible to the effects of radiation therapy than are normal cells.
Radiation can be an effective treatment for breast cancer but it does have side effects.
Find out about planning radiotherapy for breast cancer how you have treatment and about the possible side effects.
Not everyone experiences side effects of radiation.
Side effects of radiotherapy.
Serious side effects are very rare and experts agree that the benefits of radiotherapy in reducing the chances of breast cancer returning outweigh the risk of possible side effects.
Radiotherapy to the breast or under the arm can cause hardening of the tissue.
Many patients are surprised to discover that having radiation therapy is less difficult than they expected though the radiation used to damage cancer in your body can also damage healthy cells.