Brain cancer: Understanding side effects of radiotherapy
Radiotherapy for brain cancer can cause side effects.
These can happen during treatment, soon after, or much later after treatment has finished. Early (sometimes called acute) side effects happen during and soon after radiotherapy. Everyone is different so it is not possible to say exactly when side effects will start, end, or how severe they will be. The best advice is to talk to your team if you are concerned about anything at all.
You might have side effects or symptoms not listed here, because everyone and every treatment is different. They may also be caused by a different part of your cancer treatment. Research and support for side effects and late effects of radiotherapy is growing.
Joining a support group can be a positive way to share your experiences, feel less alone, and come to terms with the physical and emotional impact of treatment. Ask your treatment or clinical team if you need more support or have any side effects at all.
This page looks at early side effects.
How likely am I to get early side effects?
Before treatment you will discuss and sign a consent form with your clinical oncologist or therapeutic radiographer. They will tell you what your chances are of getting early or late side effects.
When you consent to treatment, you are saying you understand that you have a chance of getting early and late side effects. Your team will use words like Expected, Common, Less Common and Rare.
This table shows what these words mean.
| Wording on the consent form | % chance of side or late effect | How many patients will get this? |
|---|---|---|
| Expected | 50 to 100% | Between half and all patients |
| Common | 10 to 50% | Up to half of all patients |
| Less common | Less than 10% | Fewer than one in ten patients |
| Rare | Less than 1% | Fewer than one in 100 patients |
Early side effects (during or soon after treatment)
- Feeling very tired (fatigue): You might feel very tired during and after your treatment. It’s important to get plenty of rest but sometimes you will still feel really tired, even with lots of sleep. Some tiredness can be caused by having cancer and having cancer treatment, and some is caused by travelling to and from hospital every day for treatment.
- Skin reactions: You might notice a change in colour, swelling, itching, or changes in the texture of your skin where you’re treated. People with lighter skin tones might experience colour changes. These changes can be pink, red or darker than the surrounding area. People with brown and black skin tones might have colour changes such as maroon, purple, yellow or grey pigment changes. Or the skin can look darker than the surrounding area. These changes usually improve after treatment, but this can take 4 to 6 weeks in some cases.
- Hair loss: you might lose hair in the area where you are treated. Often, this grows back over time, but sometimes it might not.
- Swelling in the brain: The radiation can make the area around the treatment site swell. This can cause headaches, nausea (feeling sick), vomiting (throwing up), and feeling very sleepy. Your treatment team might give you medicine (steroids) to reduce the swelling.
- Ringing in the ears and hearing loss: Some people might hear a ringing sound in their ears or have trouble hearing, but this doesn’t happen very often during treatment.
What can help with these early side effects?
Here are some ideas you can try.
- Resting: Take breaks, rest when you feel tired and try to get good quality sleep if possible.
- Keeping active: Gentle movement can help you feel better, both during and after treatment. Your treatment team can tell you what is safe for you to do.
- Skin reactions: Use gentle creams on your scalp if the skin changes colour or becomes dry or itchy. Ask your treatment team which creams they recommend. Not all creams are suitable, so it’s important to check. Wear loose clothing and stay out of the sun. Talk to your team about washing, shaving and caring for your skin in your treatment area. You might have to change your normal routine during treatment and for a short time after, especially if you have a radiation skin reaction.
- Drinking fluids: Drinking plenty of fluids such as water and squash can help with fatigue and tiredness caused by your treatment. It can also help flush out toxins in your body caused by treatment. You can try diluted juice if you don’t like water.
- Coping with hair loss: You can think about wearing a wig or hat if you feel self-conscious about hair loss. However, it is becoming more common for people to accept hair loss and choose not to cover it, as hats and wigs can be uncomfortable.
- Treating swelling: Medicines called corticosteroids can help reduce swelling in the brain and make you feel better if you have headaches or nausea.
- Alcohol use: Please follow the NHS guidelines on safe drinking levels and any instructions you get from your team on what is right for you, your diagnosis and your treatment. If in doubt, please ask your team.
- Stop smoking: If you are looking to stop or reduce smoking, there are services available to help you. Please see the links at the bottom of this page for more information.
Click here to learn more about late effects.
Further information
Learn more about Gamma Knife treatment for brain tumours here:
Understanding Gamma Knife radiotherapy (VIDEO SERIES) • Radiotherapy UK
Learn more about radiotherapy consent forms here:
https://www.rcr.ac.uk/our-services/management-service-delivery/national-radiotherapy-consent-forms/
Learn more about radiation skin reactions here:
Learn more about managing cancer fatigue:
Managing and treating cancer fatigue | Cancer Research UK
Cancer-related fatigue | NHS inform
Advice on reducing alcohol use:
Drink less – Better Health – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
NHS stop smoking services:
