Radiation therapy for pleural mesothelioma

Radiation therapy (also sometimes called radiotherapy) is the use of targeted radiation to kill or damage cancer cells so that they cannot grow, multiply or spread.

Learn more about:

• Overview
• Having radiation therapy
• Side effects of radiation therapy
• Video: What is radiation therapy?

Overview

Many other types of cancer may respond well to radiation therapy. It can be more difficult to target radiation therapy for mesothelioma because the cancer is often spread over a large area. However, radiation therapy may still be used at different stages of treatment for pleural mesothelioma and in different ways:

• as palliative treatment to relieve pain or other symptoms caused by tumours and improve quality of life
• after chemotherapy and surgery (adjuvant radiation therapy) to help kill any remaining cancer cells.

Having radiation therapy

Treatment is carefully planned to destroy as many cancer cells as possible while causing the least harm to your normal tissue. The initial appointment to map out the treatment (simulation) may take a few hours. You will have CT scans of the affected area, and your skin may be marked with a special ink. This makes sure that the radiation is directed at the same place on your body every time you receive radiation therapy. Although the ink is permanent, the mark is only the size of a freckle.

Radiation therapy is usually every day, Monday to Friday, as an outpatient (you don’t stay in hospital). A session usually lasts about 20 minutes – the radiation therapists have to set up the equipment and position you, but the treatment itself takes only a few minutes. Radiation therapy doesn’t hurt and you aren’t radioactive afterwards.

The length of the treatment course will vary depending on the purpose of radiation therapy. It might involve 1–10 sessions for up to 2 weeks for palliative treatment, or longer if radiation therapy is combined with other treatments with the aim of long-term control.

Side effects of radiation therapy

Radiation therapy may cause various side effects during treatment or shortly afterwards, but most side effects go away after the treatment stops.

Depending on the area of the body being treated, side effects can include:

• fatigue
• peeling, cracked skin that looks red or sunburnt and may be uncomfortable
• painful swallowing
• loss of hair in the treatment area.

Radiation therapy to the chest area can cause difficulty swallowing and symptoms of reflux for a few days or weeks, sometimes leading to weight loss. If high doses of radiation therapy are given to the chest area, it may cause permanent changes (fibrosis) in the lung tissue.

For more on this, see our general section on Radiation therapy.

→ READ MORE: Trimodality therapy for pleural mesothelioma

Video: What is radiation therapy?

Watch this short video to learn more about radiation therapy.