Radiation
The immediate side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy that treat cancer are well known to those directly affected by them. The reactions can include debilitating nausea, fatigue and dizziness as well as hair loss. What you may not know is that certain adverse effects of these life-saving medicines can…
While about one-third of cancer patients use some type of complementary therapy, such as supplements, yoga or meditation, many don’t disclose this to their doctors – and that can be problematic, say researchers. Some of the concern is that supplements may contain other ingredients not listed on their labels that…
Radiation, or radiotherapy, for breast cancer patients is one of the most common forms of treatment, and comes with some uncomfortable and harmful side effects. A recent study from the University of Leicester in England has demonstrated that side effects can be minimized by changing the time of day that…
Head and neck cancers are particularly difficult cancers to treat because the tools we use in Western medicine are so destructive of the noncancerous organs near the cancer site and throughout the body. So much of daily functioning — eating, talking, breathing! — requires a functioning throat, and radiation does…
A study reveals that more complications occur in patients treated with radiation therapy versus surgery for prostate cancer. Researchers from the University of Toronto analyzed over 60,000 men between the ages of 65 and 79 who has either underwent a radical prostatectomy or radiation. Results suggest that prostate cancer patients…
My father’s grandfather, Francis Colgate Benson, was a pioneer in the treatment of cancer with radiation. He became a surgeon before the turn of the (last) century. By the end of WWI he became fascinated with the new field of radiology and worked on curing cancer with radiation. He died…
At 37 years old and the father of a newborn son, Chris Lavoie found his life turned upside-down with a diagnosis of a tumor on his thyroid. In short order, the Celebration, Florida, man had surgery to remove the thyroid and part of his vocal cord and then received the…
How do you know if your doctor is following updated guidelines? Especially if you don’t even know guidelines exist? A significant number of women with lumpectomies are getting twice the amount of radiation treatments they are supposed to. 4 years ago the American Society of Radiation changed its guidelines, cutting…
