Radiation after chemo?

Posted by alisonsullivan203 @alisonsullivan203, 1 day ago

My 81 year old mom has been having chemo past four months and the side effects have really started to get bad - fatigue, skin lesions, tastebuds gone - but her tumor has decreased and C19-9 indicators are less than 1. All good news but still needs to shrink more for Whipple to be an option. We caught it early. She is dreaming about stopping the chemo and doing radiation instead - specifically the MRI guided radiation therapy. What should we know about radiation vs chemo for side effects? For results? Her oncologist seemed reluctant to recommend it.

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julia725 | @julia725 | 11 hours ago

My husband had MRI guided radiation (aka SBRT) after chemo failed to shrink his tumor. Within a couple of weeks after finishing radiation, he developed anemia which was caused by an upper GI bleed that his team believed resulted from friable tissue caused by the radiation. He could no longer be on blood thinners. Chemo and PC itself can cause blood clots, so not being able to take blood thinners can create a life threatening situation.
I’m not sure if this is a common side effect with radiation so please ask your doctor for their opinion.