Radiation Therapy for Lung Cancers

Possible Side Effects

• Side effects are different for everyone. Some patients feel fine during treatment while others may feel uncomfortable.
• Side effects are caused by the radiation beam passing through and damaging normal tissues and organs on its way to the tumor. The direction the beam travels through the body differs from patient to patient, and so their side effects may also be different
• Different organs respond to radiation in different ways. Some become damaged relatively quickly, and you may experience the side effects within two to three weeks after starting your treatment. Other organs become damaged slowly, and you may experience side effect anywhere from six months to many years after the treatment is ends.
• Be sure to talk to your radiation oncologist before your treatment begins which side effects you could expect, and how likely they will happen.
• Skin: Skin irritation, including redness, dryness, tanning, and itchiness. Skin breakdown and ulcer formation (“skin burn”) is extremely rare during lung cancer treatment.
• Hair: Loss of hair on your chest, but not the hair on your head. However, certain types of chemotherapy that may be given together with radiation may cause hair loss on your head as well.
• Lung: Shortness of breath, dry cough.
• Esophagus: Difficulty or pain swallowing, narrowing of the esophagus.
• Fertility: Chest radiation will not affect your ability to have children.
• Stomach: You should typically not experience any nausea, diarrhea or vomiting.
• General: Tiredness, fatigue, general "blah" feeling.
• Talk to your doctor about any discomfort or pain you may feel. He or she can provide treatments, nutritional supplements, dietary recommendations or medications to help.
• Everyone responds differently to the stress of cancer and treatment. In addition to your own friends and family, your doctors, nurses, social workers and support groups are all available to help.