External beam radiation therapy Another type of radiation therapy is known as external beam radiation therapy. It comes from a machine that aims radiation at your cancer. The machine is large and may be noisy. It does not touch you, but can move around you, sending radiation to a part of your body from many directions. External beam radiation therapy is a local treatment. So, for example, if one has lung cancer, they will receive radiation only to their chest, not their whole body. In brachytherapy, seeds, ribbons, or capsules that contain a radiation source are placed in your body, in or near the tumor. Like external radiation, brachytherapy is a local treatment. Internal radiation therapy with a liquid source is called systematic therapy . Brachytherapy is put in place through a catheter, which is a small, stretchy tube. Sometimes, brachytherapy is put in place through a larger device called an applicator into your body before you begin treatment. The following are techniques for placing brachytherapy: ● Interstitial brachytherapy : The radiation source is placed within the tumor. This technique is used for prostate cancer. ● Intracavitary brachytherap y: The radiation source is placed within a bodily cavity or a cavity created by surgery. For example, radiation can be placed in the vagina to treat cervical or endometrial cancer. ● Episcleral brachytherapy : The radiation source is attached to the eye. Once the catheter or applicator is in place, the radiation source is placed inside it. The radiation source may be kept in place for a few minutes, many days, or the rest of your life. How long it Side effects of chemotherapy and radiation As with any medicine or treatments cancer, chemotherapy and radiation have many possible side effects or reactions that one person might encounter. It’s possible to have very rare side effects not seen before by a physician. Unfortunately, chemotherapy and radiation have a bevy of side effects, which include some of the worst side effects that one could imagine of any medicine. Doctors are trying to kill off the all the cells in your body because it can’t distinguish between the good and the bad, so the patients are extremely weak while going through chemotherapy and patients have a very low immune system while their bodies are trying to grow new, healthier cells. For this reason, they are told not to be around crowds, eat at restaurants (especially with a buffet), or yes, come into large salons during active treatment. Getting a simple fever or infection can kill them because they don’t have the immune system to fight it off. Because chemotherapy kills cells- including the white blood cells needed to fight against disease- patients receiving this treatment must immediately go to the hospital or emergency room with any fever of 101.0 or above A common misconception is that hair falls out by itself with chemotherapy. This does not happen as quickly as most would think in chemotherapy. It is a slower process as treatments progress, and can take place over the course of weeks. The consequences of this side effect are psychological and emotional as well as physical; for many, losing their hair represents a loss of dignity and personal expression that can be devastating. Aside from this extremely visible side effect, there are many others that can occur over the course of a chemotherapy treatment. They include: ● Nausea and vomiting (although they now have medicines to stop nausea in cancer patients, it is not always effective). ● Diarrhea.
remains in place depends on the type of radiation source, your type of cancer, where the cancer is in your body, your health, and other cancer treatments you have had. There are also three types of brachytherapy, including: ● Low-dose rate (LDR) implants : In this type of brachytherapy, the radiation source stays in place for one to seven days and patients are in the hospital during this time. Once treatment is finished, the radiation source and the catheter or applicator are removed. ● High-dose-rate (HDR) implants : In this type of brachytherapy, the radiation source is left in for just 10 to 20 minutes at a time and then taken out. Treatment is twice a day for two to five days, or once a week for two to five weeks. The schedule depends on the type of cancer. During treatment, the catheter or applicator may stay in place, or it may be put in place before each treatment. Patients may be in the hospital during this time, or they may make daily trips to the hospital to have the radiation source put in place. As with LDR implants, doctors will remove the catheter or applicator once you have finished treatment. ● Permanent implants : After the radiation source is put in place, the catheter is removed, the implants remain in your body for the rest of the patient’s life, but the radiation gets weaker each day. As time goes on, almost all the radiation will go away. When the radiation is first put in place, they may need to limit time around other people and take other safety measures and be extra careful not to spend time with children or loved ones. ● Mood swings. ● Loss of taste and sense of smell. ● Blurred vision. ● Short-term memory loss or chemo brain it is referred to by many. ● Bone pain. ● Tooth loss. ● Neuropathy. ● Blistering hands and feet or hand and foot syndrome – a rare side effect that I experienced after waking up the next morning after my third “red devil”- a slang word for Adriamycin, the most powerful chemo drug used for many different cancers- covered in blistered on the bottoms of my feet and palms of hands. Getting out of bed was impossible! I had to wait for my husband to help me with cushioned slippers and take me right to the doctor’s office. They had never actually seen that side effect before. They called in most of their staff to look at it, too. After that, I had to be taken off that drug or take a break from the chemotherapy and be put on a drug my body could handle. After trying a different drug, I began getting conjunctivitis or pinkeye about every other week. The doctors were baffled by this side effect as well! It is important to remember that cancer treatments can cause a wide variety of side effects, and becoming aware of even the most rare problems will help you become a better, more well-informed esthetician. Because there are so many variables and so many different methods of administering treatments, all cancer treatment plans are case-by-case. It depends on the different stages and other variables of cancer. For breast cancer, the treatment plan is done
after biology reports come back with important information such as the tumor subtype, receptors including hormones and receptor status, stage of the tumor, genomic markers, or Oncotype and the treatment plan will continue to be tailored to each individual patient from there.
● Extreme fatigue. ● Appetite changes. ● Dry mouth or mouth sores. ● Weight loss or gain. ● Loss of concentration. ● Low or no sex drive. ● Sleeplessness. ● Depression.
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