Question: Chemotherapy causes hair loss and suseptability to illness, is this the case with radiotherapy as well?

Rob Brass answered on 21 Jun 2016:

Hi!

The short answer is no. Chemotherapy uses drugs that are designed to attack rapidly dividing cells, like cancer, but because of this they also attack hair, nails etc. Radiotherapy uses beams of radiation in a very local area and doesnt affect other parts of the body. If we were treating a brain tumour that was very close to the surface then there may be a small amount of hair loss, but generally no.

There are some potential side effects from radiotherapy but they depend entirely on the area being treated. For instance if we’re treating a lung tumour then the patient might develop a cough or shortness of breath because of the effect of the radiation on their lungs, or if we’re treating a throat patient they might get a sore throat or dry mouth; these normally clear up after treatment though. General side effects can include occasional sore patches if we’re treating close to the surface, or just generally feeling a bit tired, but its hard to tell with the tiredness whether its the treatment or just the ordeal theyre going through!