The number of patients who win the battle against cancer and live for several years after radiation treatments has increased, according to Cancer.net. Unfortunately, some of those people develop late side effects as a result of the radiation therapy. Such side effects can appear months or years after the cancer treatments. In many patients, the late side effects are minimal, but approximately 5 percent of the patients develop serious effects, according to HealthCastle.com. Radiation typically affects only the area being treated, so the side effects depend on the area that received radiation therapy.
Secondary Cancers
Secondary cancer is another type of cancer that a patient develops after the primary cancer. Secondary cancers can develop because of the radiation therapy the patient has received years before. Secondary cancers are usually unrelated to the first cancer. The National Cancer Institute states that cancer survivors have a 14 percent higher risk of developing a new cancer than people who have never been diagnosed with cancer. People who received radiation as children have even higher risk for secondary cancers, according to the Mayo Clinic. Some patients also develop cancer in the same place where they had their primary cancer decades earlier.
Cognitive Problems
Radiation to head and neck can lead to cognitive problems such as shortened attention span or learning and memory difficulties. If hormone-producing glands are damaged, a patient may have low levels of certain hormones and may suffer from infertility or early menopause. People who have received both radiation and chemotherapy are at elevated risk for these late effects.
Heart Problems
Patients who have received radiation to chest often suffer from various heart problems after the cancer treatments. According to Cancer.net, elderly people are at higher risk for these late effects than younger survivors. Some of the common heart problems include inflammation of the heart muscle, stroke, blood clots, congestive heart failure and angina-like symptoms.
Lung Damage
Lungs are extremely sensitive to radiation, according to a study published in the December 2002 issue of the journal Cancer. Patients who have received a combination of radiation and chemotherapy, those with a history of lung diseases, and elderly people are at high risk for lung damage. Typical late effects of lung radiation include thickening of the lining of the lungs, decrease in lung volume, lung carcinoma, lung fibrosis, inflammation of the lungs, shortness of breath and frequent pneumonia and sinus infections.
