You won t lose the hair on your head.
Side effects to radiation treatment for breast cancer.
Breast cancer treatments include surgery chemotherapy radiation hormonal therapies and more.
After your sessions are complete it may be several days or weeks before side effects clear up.
They may start during or right after treatment and last for.
Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects.
Swelling in the breast skin changes in the treated area similar to a sunburn redness skin peeling darkening of the skin.
Early side effects happen during or shortly after treatment.
The most common early side effects are fatigue feeling tired and skin changes.
In this case breast fibrosis is a direct result of radiation damaging your skin s elasticity.
Treatments can cause a variety of side effects from nausea and hot flashes to hair loss and joint pain.
Side effects tend to be most pronounced toward the end of your radiation treatment.
Not everyone experiences side effects of radiation.
Just as the benefits of radiation are gradual you ll usually see a gradual onset of side effects.
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.
Many patients are surprised to discover that having radiation therapy is less difficult than they expected though the radiation used to damage cancer in your body can also damage healthy cells.
However breast fibrosis can also be long term side effect of radiotherapy.
There are two kinds of radiation side effects.
The main short term side effects of external beam radiation therapy to the breast are.
Rare short or long term side effects.
Doctors may recommend this therapy in combination with others such as surgery and chemotherapy.
Learn more about breast cancer treatments and how to manage their side effects.
Early side effects such as nausea and fatigue usually don t last long.
These side effects tend to be short term mild and treatable.
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.
Mild to moderate fatigue.
Fatigue is feeling exhausted and worn out.
Common side effects during treatment may include.
You may hear your doctor refer to it as breast fibrosis or glandular atrophy or radiation fibrosis syndrome rfs.
Nausea is rare with radiation therapy to the breast.
