How Can The Side Effects Of Radiotherapy Be Minimised?
Radiotherapy can be extremely effective against all kinds of cancer, using radiation to disrupt the DNA of cancer cells and prevent them from dividing and multiplying. It can shrink tumours, extend life, and, in many cases, eliminate cancer.
However, like many medical interventions, radiotherapy treatment does come with side effects. These can be varied, but the most common effects include:
- Fatigue
- Difficulties with eating and drinking
- Nausea
- Sore and discoloured skin
- Hair loss
- Loss of fertility (if radiotherapy occurs in the pelvic area or around the pituitary gland at the base of the brain)
This is not an exhaustive list, but it provides a clear picture: Radiotherapy can bring some unpleasant side effects that need to be handled and managed.
However, as radiotherapy has been used since the turn of the 20th century, these side-effects have become well understood and although they cannot be avoided, there are various ways in which they can be minimised in many cases, making the process much more manageable for patients.
What Activities Can You Still Do While Undergoing Radiotherapy?
For example, you might know people who have had cancer yet managed to do some very active things while undergoing treatment. An example of this that Alastair Welford, a 67-year-old from Warwickshire who recently began a 400-mile cycling challenge to raise money for a cancer charity, all while receiving radiotherapy for prostate cancer,
Mr Welford has not been free of side effects, but evidently they have not been so serious as to prevent him from undertaking a challenge that might be beyond many people in better health and of much younger age.
In his case, the treatment being given is MRI-guided radiotherapy. You may be familiar with MRI scans, which can be used to provide clear internal images of the body so medics can establish what is happening in a particular area without the need for an exploratory operation.
The benefit of using an MRI in cancer treatment is that it can help to locate precisely where a tumour or cluster of cancer cells is situated, as well as the size of the area. Modern use of MRI enables 3D imaging, which means that this can then be used to ensure the radiation applied in radiotherapy is directed with greater precision.
How Has More Precise Radiotherapy Been Made Possible?
Achieving increased accuracy in radiotherapy has been a key area of enhancement in the treatment. The more radiation can be directed very precisely at a cancer, the greater the medical effects in shrinking tumours and disrupting cancer cells. At the same time, the less radiation that gets into the surrounding tissue, the milder the side effects.
Indeed, the most accurately directed radiotherapy can require fewer sessions of treatment to have the necessary effects, because it is delivered more efficiently. This means reduced appointments and is therefore more practical for patients.
Radiotherapy can be delivered in different ways and for a condition like prostate cancer, external beam radiotherapy is used, directing the beams with precision at the affected area.
Among the innovations that have made possible more precise and intensified delivery of radiation is stereotactic radiosurgery. The term was invented in the late 1960s by Swedish neuroscientist Lars Leksell.
He invented the term as he introduced his defining invention to the world: the Gamma Knife. This device, despite its name, was anything but a knife, for it made non-invasive neurosurgery possible for the first time, as well as more precise radiotherapy.
The Gamma Knife is designed precisely for cases where the radiation has to be directed at very precise points, such as small tumours, but its original purpose was to deal with neurosurgery and that involves minimising the amount of brain tissue that is exposed to radiation.
How Can Stereotactic Radiotherapy Benefit Prostate Cancer Patients?
However, stereotactic radiosurgery can also be applied to other parts of the anatomy on the same principle; that it is beneficial to the patient to minimise the exposure of radiation for sensitive organs that lie close to the site of the cancer.
This can apply to prostate cancer, as that can reduce exposure to nearby pelvic organs. As well as issues of fertility, notable side effects can include incontinence. Prostate cancer patients may still suffer from these (especially infertility), but the exposure to radiation of other organs nearby will be reduced and the wider impact minimised.
Of course, not every patient will be able to jump on a bike and ride 400 miles over the course of a few days between treatment sessions. But equally, stereotactic radiosurgery is delivered in a way that will bring a lot less disruption to normal life than other forms of radiotherapy.
This will mean that it takes less time out of your schedule, while also enabling you to do more of your normal activities.
Learn more about our advanced radiotherapy treatments for different cancers on the Amethyst Group website.
