What are the sequelae of radiotherapy for brain cancer

We know that many cancers require radiotherapy, but radiotherapy has many side effects, so radiotherapy should be treated with caution. What are the side effects of radiotherapy for brain cancer? The most common complications of radiotherapy for brain tumors are radiation encephalopathy, radiation spinal cord injury, and difficulty opening the mouth. Let's take a look at these complications.

(1) Radiation encephalopathy occurs 10 months to 7 years after radiotherapy. It manifests as memory loss, signs of cranial nerve damage, weakness on one side of the limbs, or accompanied by headaches, and even mental abnormalities such as multi-talk, dull expression, and incoherent speech.
(2) Radiation-induced spinal cord injury usually occurs about 3 months after radiotherapy. In the early stage, the patient may feel an electric shock when lowering the head and radiate to the distal limbs, also known as Lhermitt's sign. In the late stage, the patient may suffer from transverse injury to the cervical spinal cord, with symptoms ranging from limb weakness to complete paralysis, decreased pain and tactile sensation, dry stool or incontinence.
(3) Difficulty in opening the mouth is caused by the degeneration of the temporomandibular joint and the surrounding masticatory muscles after radiation, resulting in muscle atrophy and fibrosis. This manifests as impaired movement of the temporomandibular joint and pain in the temporomandibular joint when opening the mouth. There is currently no satisfactory solution to this problem.