Shrinking tumors and destroying cancer cells through the use of high-energy X-rays is known as radiation therapy. Depending on the level of breast cancer at the time of surgery, sometimes after mastectomy and virtually after every breast-conserving surgery breast cancer radiation treatment is performed.

If you are a breast cancer patient and your doctor is going to treat your cancer with radiation treatment, you are very likely to have radiation treatments every day i.e. 5 days each week for about six weeks. Other treatments such as hormone therapy and chemotherapy may be combined with radiation therapy.

External beam radiation is the name given to the most common way of giving radiation therapy. The underarm skin and the skin on the chest are exposed to a watchfully focused radiation beam in this treatment method. Although the radiation can not be seen by you, in the treated area your skin will look a bit sunburned. In order to help identify the radiation area, small marks are tattooed onto the skin.

Placing tiny radioactive pellets in or near the site of the tumor is known as interstitial radiation, internal radiation, or brachytherapy. This is performed in some cases. Returning of the breast cancer to the previous cancerous area may be prevented by giving an additional boost of radiation near the area where the tumor was removed. Brachytherapy is often used with external beam radiation.

Breast Cancer Radiation Treatment Side Effects:

They include;

• fatigue (very common), and

• itchy, dry, red, and tender breast and underarm skin