Effects of Radiation Therapy

Effects of Radiation Therapy

Introduction

Radiation therapy can be a stressful experience for many patients; they want to know more about their treatment modality. Patients often lack information or have misinformation. Furthermore, radiation therapy, though beneficial in the control and treatment of cancer, can cause mild to severe side effects. Management of these side effects continues to be a priority in care of cancer patients and is essential to rehabilitation. There are numerous studies related to cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, less research has been conducted to address the effectiveness of an educational strategy with behavioral reinforcement for cancer patients. Radiation therapy is often curative and necessary but is not without side effects. The acute side effects are self limited and can range from being very minor to fairly severe, depending on the volume of tissue irradiated and the use of concurrent chemotherapy (Khan, 2003). Furthermore, a significant gap exists in the literature when the data are examined by literacy level. Because of complexities involved in radiation treatments, patients are often confused and harbor misunderstanding about the procedure.

Patients need information presented to them at their level of comprehension to understand radiation side effects and to make decisions about what action to take regarding treatment and self-care behaviors to manage their side-effects (Mothersill, 2006).

Discussion

The document insisted on using a low-risk and low-dose estimation LNT model although it acknowledged the uncertainty of the decision, which questioned the effectiveness of ionizing radiation on the biological effects of exposure to the latest research-based (Edmonds and McGuire, 2007). In addition, they are expected to acquire new knowledge and develop the effective skills necessary to combat their illness, in addition to developing coping abilities. While the role of patients at the beginning, middle, and ending phases of treatment may be clear to healthcare providers, it is often unclear to patients. Consequently, there is a mismatch between the anticipated patient self-care activities perceived by the provider and patients self-care behaviors (Brouse, Wolf and Basch, 2008).

Foremost delayed effects of radiation therapy in patients with brain tumor comprise of neuroendocrine effects, neurocognitive effects, secondary malignancies, altered tissue growth, hearing effects and vascular effects. These reports pointed out the cancer threshold dose of ionizing radiation induced by the possible existence of treatment and in some cases to stimulate the host's defense mechanisms side effects. The risk of harmful health effects from exposures to low-level radiation has been the subject of scientific uncertainty and disagreement for many years (Mothersill, 2006). Scientists have long known that exposure to very high levels of ionizing radiation, as this type of radiation is called, causes serious illness and death within a few days, and that lower doses of radiation can cause health effects such as cancer that may take many years to develop. Ionizing radiation, which includes X-rays and gamma rays, can cause damage in living cells by making atoms in molecules release electrons and become ions. This process can cause cell death in high doses in a short time and errors in ...