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Long Term Head and Neck Cancer radiation side effects

Head & Neck Cancer | Last Active: Oct 23 5:37pm | Replies (7)
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@mavisann

Hi jcl2018, sorry your having health issues.
My wife had a radical neck dissection and adjuvant radiation (RTx) in 1997 for stage IV squamous cell cancer in the left tonsil. She has dry mouth, teeth and swallowing and other issues and eats nutrition shakes and a soft diet using a blender to make most things soup like. Takes LT4 RX and developed RA and got 2 new hips ~ 7 yrs ago but no neck arthritis, cheek tingling, or known heart issues. Unsure if LT4 or RTx had anything to do with RA.
Recent CTs indicate scarring of both upper lungs likely due to RTx.
Tiny calcified granulomas,
Coronary calcification, and Calcified left anterior diaphragmatic lymph node. Unsure of cause of these.
She is now undergoing chemo treatment for pancreatic cancer and the side effects of her 1997 cancer treatments are causing challenges with her current treatment.
Her surgeon from 1997 mentioned to us that the only patients that have issues with long term treatment side effects are the patients that are still living. That helped us and put things in perspective.
Hope that is of some help.
Best to you.

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Replies to "Hi jcl2018, sorry your having health issues. My wife had a radical neck dissection and adjuvant..."
jcl2018 | @jcl2018 | Oct 18 5:25am

Hi everyone. Thank you for the feedback and best wishes to all of you.

I've learned in communicating with various individuals that we all have the same "baseline" side effects (dry mouth, swallowing, impact on lungs, neck/upper spine issues, etc). Beyond that it becomes a bit of a mystery as to the cause of other issues (coronary, calcification, neuropathy, etc). Is it age or treatment related.

Regardless, I'm grateful for everyday and for your feedback.

For what it's worth, there is a 2020 article published by Itzhak Brook in the Journal of Radiation Oncology. It discussed long term head and neck cancer side effects. I've found it useful . Sorry I can't add the link due to website protocols but you should be able to find it on the web if you search his name and the journal.

Thanks Again!

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