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What happens during radiation for esophageal cancer?
My husband has stage 3 esophageal cancer diagnosed December of 2023. He began chemo in January of 2024 getting that treatment every other week for over 2 years now. Well now the cancer is slowing growing and affecting his swallowing. Food is getting stuck causing him to throw it back up. The doctor has decided to do radiation for the first time. I was wondering about what happens during radiation. Will his throat swell? I heard it would and there would be scaring. The doctor has mentioned this as well but I am a little worried about it closing up all the way! He said he would have to be on liquids eventually. I see a lot of your stories are chemo and radiation together and I was just wanting to hear about it first hand from someone going through it. Thank you for any insight you can give. he starts on March 23rd.
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I only had stage 2 squammous cell and had radiation chemo then esophagectomy, try Liquid Hope all vegan food in bags no chemicals no onions no artificial sweeteners also one called "nourish", sold on amazon, your insurance may cover the cost if you appeal their "no" your doctor can call the manufacturere and get free samples, good luck!!!!!! Naomi Shapiro
Is your husband having proton or photon radiation? My husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer in May 2025, went through 12 rounds of chemo before he started proton radiation in late October. He had radiation for 5 weeks/5 days a week at Rochester Mayo. He also had chemo once a week. I’d be happy to share his experience, but I hear proton and photon radiation are different, so I wanted to ask what type before commenting.
Sending hugs to you!
Have you said you had an esophagectomy? I haven't and my stricture is about a third of the way down to my stomach...
I was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer about a year ago. I too have trouble eating certain foods. Has your doctor recommended an endoscopy? During the procedure a biopsy can be taken of the tumor. They can also insert something ( sorry don’t know what it is called) into the esophagus to stretch it. Good luck to you and your husband.
@earle This is a followup post. I've since been through one more dilation. My lumen had shrunk back down to "ten or below," as the GE doc told my wife. He stretched it open to 18mm. I can tell he went at it a bit more aggressively. I have mild pain on swallowing, tapering off now after a couple of days. A real surprise was waking up in the wee hours after the dilation almost strangling from the secretions from the fissures formed by the stretching and coughing periodically the rest of the night. He commented to my wife that we'd just keep on doing it until it stayed stretched. I'm scheduled to go back to MD Anderson for a followup EUS and biopsies on the 20th of this month. I'll ask them to do a dilation, if indicated, then.
I wanted to make a comment about types of radiation. I'm unusual in that I've had both IMRT and PRT. At MDA, the proton center was backed up from being renovate. We were lucky in that the cancer was III but confined to the interior of the esophagus and my lymph nodes were clear (still are). I would have had to wait a week for the proton machine, so they asked if I wanted to start with a week of the photon machine (IMRT), and then have 4.5 weeks of proton radiation. I assented. I found the side effect of the photon therapy to be much more pronounced than proton later, both in terms of pain and also fatigue. I had no pain with the proton thrapyy during treatment. I did have pain the last four sessions (five per week) at night after treatment. I wouldn't characterize it as major and easily controlled with mild meds...