Late effects of cancer treatment
ByLance Williams
Cancer RSS Feed
Late effects are side effects of cancer treatment that become apparent after your treatment has ended. Cancer survivors might experience late effects of cancer treatment a few months after treatment is completed or years later.
It isn't clear why these effects are delayed. Some doctors believe that late effects simply weren't noticed during and immediately after your treatment, though the damage may have been there all along. It could be that your body was compensating for the damage caused by cancer treatment and is no longer able to do that, revealing these late effects.
Some side effects start during your cancer treatment and linger for months or years after. These are called long-term side effects of cancer treatment. For example, nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy) is common during some types of chemotherapy and may begin during treatment but linger for months or even years after cancer treatment is completed. Most long-term effects lessen with time.
Some cancer survivors wonder why they weren't told about the possibility of lingering or late side effects before they began treatment. Sometimes cancer survivors were told, but with so much to remember and go through when you're first diagnosed and beginning treatment, it's easy to forget or not absorb all the information you're given. Sometimes your doctor doesn't discuss late side effects because it's impossible to discuss every single side effect, early or late, that some treatments have. It's also possible that the late effects of your treatment weren't known at the time you began that treatment.
What cancer treatments cause late effects?
Late effects of cancer treatment can come from any of the three main types of cancer treatment: chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. As newer types of cancer treatment are developed, doctors may find that these treatments also cause late effects in cancer survivors.
In general, chemotherapy tends to cause more long-term side effects in cancer survivors, though it can cause serious late effects. Radiation usually causes late effects in cancer survivors, though it can also cause long-term effects. If you have a combination of treatments, you're more likely to experience late effects.
Keep in mind that not everyone who has cancer treatment gets each of the long-term or late side effects, and some people might not experience any aftereffects of treatment. Different chemotherapy drugs cause different late effects. So if you didn't take the chemotherapy drugs that can cause hearing loss, then you aren't believed to be at risk of that particular late effect. Radiation and surgery will only affect the area of the body they're used to treat. So if you had radiation to a part of your body other than your head or neck, then you won't be at risk of cavities and tooth loss in the future.
What signs and symptoms might signal that you're experiencing late effects of cancer treatment?
Talk to your doctor about the late effects of your particular treatment. In some cases your doctor will know what effects you're at risk of. But also know that the late effects of many treatments still aren't known.
Your doctor might be able to help you understand what signs and symptoms are clues that you're experiencing certain late effects of your cancer treatment. Your doctor might also screen you for late effects of treatment when you come in for follow-up appointments after your cancer treatment is completed.
Report to your doctor any signs or symptoms that bother you. It's best to have them checked out so that, at the very least, you don't spend a lot of time worrying about what could be wrong. And catching late effects early gives you the best chance at treating them.
If you were treated for cancer many years ago or are no longer seeing a cancer specialist for checkups, talk to your primary care physician or family doctor about late effects. If you think you might be experiencing late effects or your doctor isn't sure what late effects to watch for, ask for a referral to a cancer specialist.
What can you do to prevent late effects of cancer treatment?
It isn't clear that late effects are preventable or why some people might experience late effects while others don't. This can be frustrating and is only made worse by the fact that relatively little is known about late effects of cancer treatment.
Don't feel hopeless. Take steps to make your body strong and healthy, such as exercising and eating a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. This will help you deal better with late effects, should they develop.
Related Articles, Information, Products And Links
Related Articles on Cancer
- Adjuvant Therapy (keep cancer from returning)
- Cancer and Diet
- Cancer: No appetite? How to get the nutrition you need
- Bone density test
- Gastric Cancer
- 10 Options in Treating Mesothelioma
- Akt Family: Antibodies from Imgenex
- Apoptosis Programmed Cell Death
- Are we "Livin" or just "Survivin"?
- ATM (Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated) Antibodies from Imgenex
- QuikChIP Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Kits
- Epigenetic and Signal Transduction Reagents
- Faces of DARPP-32: Master Signaling Mediator in the Brain?
- GPR83: A Novel Treg Expressed Cell Surface Marker
- New FOXP3Δ2 (Exon 2 Deleted) Specific Antibody
- GPR83: A Novel Treg Expressed Cell Surface Marker
- Colorectal Cancer Screening
- Anti-cancer drug fights cardiovascular disease
- Common Std Diseases And Cure
- Diagnose Breast Cancer
Latest Articles on Cancer
-
Cancer - Causes Of Cancer And Therapies
Prostate Cancer Kills. According to the American Cancer Association over 192,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Over 27,000 men will die from this form of cancer each year. Cancer of the prostate is the second most deadly cancer for men, second only to lung cancer.... -
Pancreatic Cancer Treatment
Pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed after the above symptoms are either detected by the patient or the supervising doctor. After the indicators are evaluated, liver function tests and tests for CA19-9 - a marker for pancreatic cancer - are often performed. The first step in beating pancreatic cancer is empowering yourself with knowledge of how cancer works, pondering the critical thinking... -
Liver Cancer Treatment, Causes And Symptoms
Liver cancer also known as primary or metastasis hepatic carcinoma is a fairly rare form of cancer in the western world (1% of all cancers) but much more common in Africa and parts of Asia (10% to 50% of all cancers). It is much more prevalent in men and incidence increases with age.... -
How To Beat Cigarettes With Psychology
Many experts believe smoking is only about 10% physical addiction and 90% psychological. Your body will recover fairly quickly from nicotine withdrawals with the worst symptoms usually subsiding in about three days or less. But your psychological dependency on cigarettes can be much more difficult to overcome.... -
Diagnose Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer - Prevention And Cure Breast cancer, the growth of malignant cells in the breast, is the most common cancer among women. It is rare but does occur in men breast cancer usually originates in the milk carrying ducts, although it may arise in the milk producing lobules or, more rarely, in the dense connective... -
Common Std Diseases And Cure
We all know the importance of becoming aware of extensive ranges of sexually transmitted diseases. I have prepared a guideline of such diseases that will help everyone in getting the right cure and prevention.Sexually transmitted diseases or STD is infectious disease; it can .... -
Anti-cancer drug fights cardiovascular disease
An experimental anti-cancer drug can prevent -- and even reverse -- potentially fatal cardiovascular damage in a mouse model of progeria, a rare genetic disorder that causes the most dramatic form of human premature ageing, National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers reported today. In a study published in the Oct. 6 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences... -
Colorectal Cancer Screening
Colorectal Cancer Screening Methods Comparison - There are five main screening methods for colorectal cancer. Digital Rectal Exam,Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT), Colonoscopy, Sigmoidoscopy, Double-contrast Barium Enema (DCBE). It serves as an excellent initial screening due to its safe, simple and inexpensive nature. ... -
GPR83: A Novel Treg Expressed Cell Surface Marker
GPR83 is a member of the Orphan-A G-Protein coupled receptor family, and has anunknown ligand. It has been previously reported in various regions of the brain, within a subset of T-lymphocytes, and by RT-PCR at low levels in heart, kidney, liver, and otherorgans. For more details read out the article:... -
New FOXP3Δ2 (Exon 2 Deleted) Specific Antibody
FOXP3 is a master regulator of immune homeostasis expressed specifically in CD4+ CD25+ T regulatory cells controlling their growth, development and function and generally accepted to be expressed in both mouse and human CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells. For more details read out the article:...
