What side effects can I expect from radiation treatment?
You will not feel anything immediately from the treatment. Most people do develop some redness and soreness of the skin through which the radiation passes – the skin in the port area. You should treat it delicately, and use a cream if suggested by your doctor.
Most people experience fatigue. There are many reasons for a mesothelioma patient to feel fatigue, including the cancer, low blood count (anemia), and weight loss due to less desire to eat. However, patients getting radiation therapy seem to experience fatigue above and beyond all the other reasons.
There may also be reactions in the tissues near the cancer that have also been exposed to radiation. For pleural mesothelioma, that can include a reaction in the lungs called radiation pneumonitis, which causes cough and shortness of breath. This can be difficult to distinguish from the symptoms of the tumor. The esophagus, or food pipe, can become swollen, making it difficult and painful to swallow.
Radiation therapy is usually not done for peritoneal mesothelioma. The whole abdomen would have to be treated, because mesothelioma cells tend to spread around the whole abdomen. Nausea and vomiting would occur if the abdomen is in the treatment area.
There is no reason for patients getting radiation therapy for mesothelioma to lose the hair on their head, only hair in the area being radiated. There is also no reason for patients to lose fertility unless the radiation is aimed at the lower abdomen.
Patients getting external radiation therapy are not radioactive.