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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Severe Stomach And Lower Back Pain After Radiation Therapy?

After completion of radiation (8wks,5 days a wk) and 3 chemo/1 herbitux treatment, in June of 2010, my brother has been having severe pain in the stomach area/lower back. So bad, he has to go to the ER. it is random, sometimes after a month, sometimes within the week it will happen twice. He is scared to eat, thinking eating is causing the problem. Is it a side effect from treatments or possibly the thrush he had so badly. He had Soft Palate Cancer, tumor on roof of mouth.
Wed, 25 Mar 2015
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Radiologist,  's  Response
Hi,
Thanks for writing in.

Radiation therapy is a treatment that involves irradiation with beta and gamma rays over the cancer area to kill the cells and stop multiplication. It looks like your brother had external beam radio therapy and this was spread over 8 weeks and 5 days a week making it 40 fractions. He was also given chemotherapy in 3 cycles. While it is unlikely for a soft palate cancer to be treated by radiation treatment to be causing severe pain in lower back and stomach, possibility of cancer spreading to other places cannot be ruled out. Causes of pain need to be separately investigated and if found pain relief must be targeted tot he problem causing the pain. Please do not worry.
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What Causes Severe Stomach And Lower Back Pain After Radiation Therapy?

Hi, Thanks for writing in. Radiation therapy is a treatment that involves irradiation with beta and gamma rays over the cancer area to kill the cells and stop multiplication. It looks like your brother had external beam radio therapy and this was spread over 8 weeks and 5 days a week making it 40 fractions. He was also given chemotherapy in 3 cycles. While it is unlikely for a soft palate cancer to be treated by radiation treatment to be causing severe pain in lower back and stomach, possibility of cancer spreading to other places cannot be ruled out. Causes of pain need to be separately investigated and if found pain relief must be targeted tot he problem causing the pain. Please do not worry.