Radiotherapy

Hello my mother has just had radiotherapy on her neck which has cancer in the bone and was fractured after a fall which was when they discovered the cancer - she has not recovered from the fracture and is still in a neck brace and in hospital - she is in terrible pain in her neck following radiotherapy to the point she says it come as a surprise and feels like her neck is broken .

Is this common ? severe pain following radiotherapy ? or is it because it was done on a broken bone ?

thanks in advance

  • Hello and thank you for posting.

    I'm sorry you are going through this with your mum.

    It is not unusual for patients to feel an initial increase in pain after radiotherapy, it is often called a radiotherapy flare. Please do talk to one of your mum's team about her pain so that they can organise some appropriate pain killers. In the meantime do give her some over the counter medication to relieve the discomfort until it is all sorted. 

    Here is information on radiotherapy for bones which if you scroll down to the external beam section you will see this pain flare discussed as a side effect.

    Take care and hope Mum gets more comfortable soon,

    Sarah.