Few things in life can be scarier than learning that you have been diagnosed with cancer. Even though it affects nearly half the population at some point in their lives, the prospect is a scary one not just because it can be life-threatening, but because treatment can be gruelling.

However, the fact remains that cancer survival rates are far better than they were even a couple of decades ago, with advances in radiotherapy playing a major role in fighting the disease more effectively than ever.

How Radiotherapy Can Make The Difference

Indeed, if you come to a modern radiotherapy centre you will quickly find you are encountering state-of-the-art equipment and expertise, complemented by better scanning and data recording equipment than ever, which helps both with diagnostics and with assessments of treatment options. New AI technology is advancing this further still.

All this means you have a much better chance of survival, or at least extended life, even if you are suffering from conditions such as prostate cancer. This is true whether it is primary (confined to the prostate itself), or metastatic cancer, where this has spread.

Patients need to understand when radiotherapy may be the best option. For some kinds of cancer, radiotherapy is not suitable at all. Where it is, the use of this technique is usually all about directing radiation specifically at the affected area, such as a tumour or a particularly affected organ.

An exception to the use of radiotherapy in specific areas is total body irradiation, which is used in the treatment of conditions such as some types of leukaemia or lymphoma.

The question of when you may have the treatment is one to which the answer may vary. It can be used on its own, such as when invasive surgery is impossible or difficult (such as when a gamma knife is used in treating brain tumours).

It can be performed before surgery (to shrink the size of a tumour) or after surgery (to kill off any remaining cells). It can be used on its own, or in combination with chemotherapy.

All that means the full experience of treatment is not just about the time you spend having your cancer cells or tumour bombarded with radiation beams, but the decisions that are made and the explanations given as skilled medical experts take you through the options and help you make important decisions.

When Treatment Decisions Are Keenly Balanced

A good example of where decisions can be keenly balanced by a range of different factors would include metastatic spinal cord compression. This is where a cancer spreads to the spinal cord and these cells press down on the spinal cord, which can inhibit the messages sent by the brain for important motor functions.

This is common with prostate cancer and its effects can range from nerve damage to paralysis. This means it is a priority for treatment. The question is which one may be best.

On the one hand, surgery can help remove or reduce the size of a clump of cells, but spinal surgery is invasive and disruptive, as it involves cutting through a lot of important tissue.

However, radiotherapy is not a simple alternative either, as the side effects can lead to a longer hospital stay. It may also take a little longer to shrink the cells down, which means the patient needs to lie down more, which can be troubling if a patient has other conditions like a respiratory illness (flu or Covid, for instance).

In a treatment scenario like this, other factors might include the use of a steroid like Dexamethasone (which, if the patient has also had Covid, is very useful as it was the first pre-existing drug shown to be useful against the virus). A compression mattress that prevents bed sores in patients lying down for long periods can also help.

Side Effects Of Radiotherapy

The side effects of using radiotherapy can be many: it may include sore skin, a loss of appetite and nausea, bowel problems, tiredness, stiff joints, a loss of sexual desire and, most visually, hair loss, the latter being most distressing from a social perspective for women.

However, while these effects can make the process gruelling, the good news is they are not permanent. When treatment is over, the sight of returning hair, a renewed appetite and even a better intimate life can all be among the joys of recovery.

All this goes to show that radiotherapy is not something to be taken lightly, which is why your treatment and that of all other patients will come about after careful assessment and consideration of all the relevant factors.