What does radiation entail?

I finished chemo for Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma but this mass in my chest is having trouble going away. My oncologist wants to do radiation and my parents agreed but I'm not sure what it's like since I've only ever experienced chemo. Any help would be appreciated.

You have a received a number of very helpful but often semi-correct answers regarding radiotherapy.

There is no pain or even a sensation that anything has happened while the treatment is happening. You might have treatments 5 days a week for 4-6 weeks depending on the treatment regimen. First off they will do a couple CT scans and tattoo your skin with a few tiny dots so they have marks from which to measure to direct the treatment accurately each time. The first couple treatments can make you nervous but after that the actual treatment is no big deal. The entire treatment itself lasts from maybe 2 to 10 minutes depending on how much set up they have to do. The actual radiation portion of the treatment only lasts about 15 seconds or so. You do not get sick afterwards but if you have already been doing treatments for several weeks then you might get a little tired afterwards. I only rarely noticed any fatigue. There are numerous types of radiotherapy (more than just 2) but since your mass is in your chest you will probably have photon radiation.
Your skin might get slightly warm or maybe even sunburned feeling during the last weeks of treatment. Compared to having chemo, radiation, for most people, is a walk in the park.

I do not know if you run the risk of lymphedema since your chest will be the treated area but I'd ask the radiation oncologist if there is any risk. Lymphedema is fluid build-up due to the radiation damaging your lymphatic drainage system.

http://www.lymphomation.org/radiation.ht...

Radiation is a very effective treatment and should work well for you. Take care and all the best in your treatments.

The radiation will basically screw up the rest of the DNA in the tumor, and hopefully destroy its ability to grow new blood vessels. If this succeeds, the tumor will die.

I do not know what it feels like, but I wish you the best :]

well u wont notice when u will have radiation. its with increasin number of fractions that u may have darkening of skin, few ulcerations in mucosa that gets radiated...but all these can be managed. u can discuss with ur doctor any long term effects in organs that come in field of radiation.

They will target where they need to Lazar. Then you will go and have this done, for however many treatments that they say you will need. There wasn't any pain but after a couple of them, my mom got extremely tired. Hers was on the brain. Your treatment might be different. I know my mom said there really wasn;t any thing to it. She just wanted to get it over with. I wish you the best. Take care and God Bless.

There's basically two types - within one approach, they put a radioactive pellet into the tumor, and the other type is just a very narrowly focused x-ray. The effects are a little different for everyone. Most people get sick a few hours later - mostly nausea, and then the nausea steadily wears off over the next 5-6 days. It usually doesn't have many side effects other than the nausea, but some people also have some burning-type pain where the radiation was focused. Good info at the link:

I did radiation for breast cancer, so I can relate to area that would be treated. I had six and a half weeks, M-F, at first I didn't feel anything. But after a while, it starts feeling and looking like a sunburn. And before I was finished, it was a Bad sunburn. I kept telling them "to take me out, I'm done." Than the peeling started, thats fun. Tip: Aquaphor- works great, better than aloe. So anyway, it was more of a pain in the *** for me, cause the m-f appt. only last about 10 min. I live over a hundred miles away from "my cancer team". Good luck to you , and best wishes. Talk to a radiaologist, about questions you may have.

I've had radiation for throat cancer and it lasted for 8 weeks at 5 days a week. It burned the skin around my throat but I was given some ointment to help the burn. The burn is the worst part, it is almost like a severe sun burn, but yoru oncologist should explain that. I am not your doctor, but have it done to get rid of the lump. Good luck