Radiation therapy for pleural mesothelioma

Also known as radiotherapy, radiation therapy is the use of targeted radiation to kill or damage cancer cells so they cannot grow, multiply or spread.

Radiation therapy may be used at different stages of pleural mesothelioma treatment 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.

Learn more about:

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

Listen to podcasts on Making Treatment Decisions and Coping with a Cancer Diagnosis

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 given every day Monday to Friday as an outpatient treatment. A session usually lasts about 20 minutes because the radiation therapists have to set up the equipment and position you, but the treatment itself takes only a few minutes.

The length of the treatment course will vary depending on why you’re having radiation therapy – it might involve 1–10 sessions for up to two weeks for palliative treatment, or longer if radiation therapy is combined with other treatments with the aim of long-term control. Radiation therapy doesn’t hurt and you aren’t radioactive afterwards.

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. Your doctors and nurses will tell you what side effects to expect and how to manage them.

The side effects of radiation therapy vary depending on the area of the body treated, but 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 Radiation therapy.

Video: What is radiation therapy?