Side Effects To Radiation Treatment For Breast Cancer

After your sessions are complete it may be several days or weeks before side effects clear up.

Side effects to radiation treatment for breast cancer. Doctors may recommend this therapy in combination with others such as surgery and chemotherapy. Treatments can cause a variety of side effects from nausea and hot flashes to hair loss and joint pain. You won t lose the hair on your head. Radiation can be an effective treatment for breast cancer but it does have side effects.

Nausea is rare with radiation therapy to the breast. However you may lose some hair under your arm or on the breast or chest area getting radiation this may be a concern for some men with breast cancer. Early side effects happen during or shortly after treatment. Learn more about breast cancer treatments and how to manage their side effects.

You may hear your doctor refer to it as breast fibrosis or glandular atrophy or radiation fibrosis syndrome rfs. Common side effects during treatment may include. The main short term side effects of external beam radiation therapy to the breast are. Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects.

They may start during or right after treatment and last for. Many people who get radiation therapy have fatigue. Just as the benefits of radiation are gradual you ll usually see a gradual onset of side effects. Early side effects such as nausea and fatigue usually don t last long.

Mild to moderate fatigue. These side effects tend to be short term mild and treatable. Rare short or long term side effects. Fatigue is feeling exhausted and worn out.

Swelling in the breast skin changes in the treated area similar to a sunburn redness skin peeling darkening of the skin. They re usually gone within a few weeks after treatment ends. Radiation not only kills or slows the growth of cancer cells it can also affect nearby healthy cells. In this case breast fibrosis is a direct result of radiation damaging your skin s elasticity.

Early and late effects of radiation therapy. Side effects tend to be most pronounced toward the end of your radiation treatment. There are two kinds of radiation side effects. Breast cancer treatments include surgery chemotherapy radiation hormonal therapies and more.

However breast fibrosis can also be long term side effect of radiotherapy.