Hello doctor,My father has advanced lung cancer and severe pain in his legs or back. It is suggested that he should have radiotherapy, possibly five sessions. I understand this is to reduce his pain. Is it possible to explain to me what this involves, before and after, and for how long, whether the five sessions are on five consecutive days, whether any injections or other medications are part of this treatment? If there is any lab test to see the effectiveness of this treatment how long it will take to get the results. In short I would like to get a sense the scope and steps of this radiotherapy treatment to reduce pain. Is this a very costly treatment? How effective is this treatment to reduce pain? How long the effectiveness of the five sessions last?
Hello. I can understand your concern. It looks like a stage 4 lung cancer (attachment removed to protect patient identity). The pain in the back and limbs is possibly due to bone metastasis (cancer spread to the bone). You have not attached any report to know the details of cancer (type of cancer, treatment received and involvement of other parts of the body due to lung cancer). Does your father have any associated diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac or thyroid disorder, any smoking history? Is he walking without support and what about eating habits? The radiotherapy will be given daily for five days. It will take at least one to two weeks to act. So he must continue pain medications. They will not give any injection with radiotherapy. It will take just five minutes daily for radiotherapy to complete one session. Yes, the first day it may take more time because they have to plan the radiotherapy.  The effect of radiotherapy may last for 1 to 3 months. Sometimes because of a resistant tumor or huge mass, radiotherapy fails to bring any relief to the patient. There are no laboratory tests to check the effectiveness of radiotherapy. It is a palliative radiotherapy and the response will be measured clinically only. If you can attach all the reports I can try to give you more valuable suggestions. For more information consult a medical oncologist online -->