Side Effects Of Prostate Radiation Treatment

However these radiotherapy side effects are less common and occur only when the radiation damages your body.

Side effects of prostate radiation treatment.

Most side effects are temporary and slowly start to go away once treatment is done. During and after radiation treatment for prostate cancer there may be diarrhea and or rectal pain irritable bowels incontinence of feces and sometimes bloody stools 2 according to the acs this is more common with older forms of external beam radiation where the source of radiation is placed outside the body. External beam radiation and. Long term side effects of radiation therapy for prostate cancer studies show that over time men who have undergone this procedure tend to develop long term side effects.

Patients start to have side effects a few weeks into their treatment. Radiation therapy also called x ray therapy uses high levels of radiation to kill prostate cancer cells or keep them from growing and dividing while minimizing damage to healthy cells. When it comes to prostate cancer there are two kinds of radiation treatment. The type and severity of side effects you have with external beam radiation for prostate cancer may depend on the dose and on the amount of healthy tissue that s exposed to the radiation.

Side effects from radiation treatment are related to the area of the body being treated. Because the prostate is close to several vital structures radiation therapy can disrupt normal urinary bowel and sexual functioning. Short term complications you may experience some temporary urinary symptoms such as waking up in the night and needing to urinate needing to urinate more often during the day or urgency needing to.