Hello Jw82, 

I hope your dad is recovering well following his merkel cell carcinoma diagnosis. It's good news that your dad's lymph node biopsy was clear and I hope that the radiotherapy treatment goes well for him. It is mentioned on our page on MCC that radiotherapy might be offered after surgery "to kill any MCC cells that might have been left behind. This is called adjuvant treatment. It lowers the risk of the cancer coming back." 

Our website has in-depth information on radiotherapy which I hope you will find useful including a detailed section on radiotherapy side effects which might be of interest to you. It is important to remember that treatment can affect people differently so it is hard to predict really whether he will experience side effects or not. I hope that it will all go well for him and if you ever wanted to talk things through with one of our cancer nurses, there is a free helpline you can ring on 0808 800 4040 - Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. 

I hope that you will hear from the experiences of others who have had radiotherapy for MCC and that they will come and share their story with you. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator