radiation therapy

 Radiation thereapy affects each individual differently...The most important thing is to make sure your dad is not overadiated.  You say how can this happen.  Some people are more sensative than others.  The white cell count is most important.  Make sure the doctor checks his blood each week.Mine was wiped out in a week and after I insisted on a blood test is showed my white cells were too low for more radiation..Radiation effect does not stop once the treatment stops it keeps working.  If at any time your dad appears to have burns or the doc tells you he is a little toxic from the radiation you can use iodoral to remove some of the toxicity.

Secondary infection is the major problem.  A lot of people do not pass away from the cancer but from a secondary infection due to low blood counts.

As for the radiation for this stage it is not in my area of knowledge.  Sometimes less is better as this is a very quick acting cancer...My personal philosophy is to take what remains of life and be comfortable.  Sometimes the cure is worse than the complaint.

This will be up to your dad to decide as it his life.  Take care and God Bless. 

On 4/10/2007 May25 wrote:

At the end of 2006, my father was diagnosed with a malign tumor growth at the head of the pancreas, size 5 x 4,5 cm. The diagnosis established was Ductal Adenocarcinoma Pancreatis G1.

Based on the CT scans and MRI - the surgeons thought that surgical removal of the tumor would be possible. However, when they started the surgery (in January 2007), they found out that the cancer had spread to liver, but that the amount of it in liver was too small to be visible on scans. The proper surgery was then not possible any longer. My father recovered relatively quickly and continued with gemzar chemotherapy four weeks later.

He has been receiving gemzar since February 20th 2007, once a week, three weeks in a row, followed by a two weeks break. Now the oncologist has recommended a follow up treatment combining radiotherapy and cytostatics for 17 consecutive days. (continuing with the chemotherapy after this). As I understood, he would be receiving the radiotherapy for no longer than 3 minutes every day.

My questions are as follows:

1. Since he is starting with the radiation therapy today, and I feel that we were not given enough information about the possible side effects/risks, I wonder whether anyone can give me some advice what precautions to take while undergoing the treatement (exposure to sun, treatement of the skin which has been exposed to the therapy, side effects of cytostatics, etc?)

2. Perhaps more importantly, I read on several websites that the radiotherapy is not usually applied for the treatment of stage IVB of the pancreatic cancer (which I understand is defined as a stage in which the cancer has spread  to distant organs such as the liver). Can anyone give me an opinion on this?

Many thanks your feedback.

The information you presented truly contains the answers to your questions. 

Essentially, make sure that you and your Dad remain in control; be proactive and make certain that you are both his advocate.  In such an environment, the patient is both empowered and enabled.  Through this process you should be able to develop both sufficient and appropriate decision criteria upon which the best decisions can be made.   

On 4/10/2007 May25 wrote:

At the end of 2006, my father was diagnosed with a malign tumor growth at the head of the pancreas, size 5 x 4,5 cm. The diagnosis established was Ductal Adenocarcinoma Pancreatis G1.

Based on the CT scans and MRI - the surgeons thought that surgical removal of the tumor would be possible. However, when they started the surgery (in January 2007), they found out that the cancer had spread to liver, but that the amount of it in liver was too small to be visible on scans. The proper surgery was then not possible any longer. My father recovered relatively quickly and continued with gemzar chemotherapy four weeks later.

He has been receiving gemzar since February 20th 2007, once a week, three weeks in a row, followed by a two weeks break. Now the oncologist has recommended a follow up treatment combining radiotherapy and cytostatics for 17 consecutive days. (continuing with the chemotherapy after this). As I understood, he would be receiving the radiotherapy for no longer than 3 minutes every day.

My questions are as follows:

1. Since he is starting with the radiation therapy today, and I feel that we were not given enough information about the possible side effects/risks, I wonder whether anyone can give me some advice what precautions to take while undergoing the treatement (exposure to sun, treatement of the skin which has been exposed to the therapy, side effects of cytostatics, etc?)

2. Perhaps more importantly, I read on several websites that the radiotherapy is not usually applied for the treatment of stage IVB of the pancreatic cancer (which I understand is defined as a stage in which the cancer has spread  to distant organs such as the liver). Can anyone give me an opinion on this?

Many thanks your feedback.

Radiation treatment are local or local regional only.  Side effects are related to where  the beam is directed.  Radiation by itself does not affect blood counts significantly except;

In people have received chemo and/or concurrent chemo.  In these cases it is mainly the systemic treatment causing this.  This is a common misconception since so many people get both.  I have NEVER had to stop treatment due to blood counts when radiation was given alone, which it almost never is in todays' world.  When the blood counts go down as expected with chemo, there is no need to stop the irradiation.  Another misconception and it does affect the treatment.  You can treat thru the nadir and the counts will recover.  Reason is the bone marrow ,usually limited amount, which is in the radiated area is no longer functional and recovery is weeks or months so stopping treatment will not accelerate recovery.

Side effects from this type of irradiation will be Nausea (need to premedicate the patient and limit the dose per fraction) Fatigue and maybe some diarrhea.  We are able to localize the dose better so the above , if done correctly are not as bad.  Some people do still treat using 2D and that would result in more side effects.

Chemo Rads can offer local control of these cancers, it is the metastasis that are unmanageable.