This booklet covers the different procedures used to control pancreatic cancer symptoms with practical information about your hospital visit and returning home. Includes a section about second opinions, clinical trials and questions to ask your doctor and a glossary to explain some of the terms used.
Radiotherapy treats cancer by using high-energy x-rays to destroy cancer cells, while doing as little harm as possible to normal cells.
Radiotherapy is not used as often as chemotherapy or surgery to treat pancreatic cancer. You may have radiotherapy alongside chemotherapy or on its own. It works by using high energy rays to destroy cancer cells, whilst leaving your healthy cells as unharmed as possible.
Radiotherapy may be given:
All radiotherapy is targeted towards the tumour, but using complex computer models the focus of this targeting can be improved (stereotactic radiotherapy), allowing a higher dose to be administered with the same side effects in shorter time. “Cyberknife” is an example of this form of therapy. Whilst there are potential advantages from shorter treatment courses and perhaps fewer side effects, there is no evidence as yet that it is more effective than standard treatments.
Radiotherapy takes place in a radiotherapy department in a hospital. You may have a treatment daily Monday to Friday with a break over the weekend. Each treatment may take between ten and thirty minutes. A course of radiotherapy may take around six weeks.
The side effects of radiotherapy are related to the unwanted damage sustained by surrounding tissue. To minimise these unwanted effects, the total dose of radiation is split into up to 20 fractions given, for example, every weekday for 4 weeks. The dose of radiotherapy used to relieve symptoms such as bone pain is usually lower so you may have a shorter course of treatment and less chance of side effects.