Side effects and treatments of radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Most nasopharyngeal carcinomas are poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinomas and are relatively sensitive to radiotherapy. However, some side effects are inevitable during the treatment process. The following is a brief introduction to the side effects of radiotherapy and how to deal with them.

1. Dry mouth

During conventional radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the irradiation field includes most of the parotid gland tissue. After 1-2 irradiations, the patient will feel swelling and pain in the parotid gland area and difficulty opening the mouth. This is due to local congestion, edema, and poor salivary gland excretion. With continued radiotherapy, dry mouth worsens. One year after radiotherapy, some patients have a slight improvement in dry mouth. The solution is to use new radiotherapy equipment and improve radiotherapy technology.

2. Acute radiation reaction of oral cavity and oropharyngeal mucosa

When radiotherapy is 20-30Gy, patients experience pain in the mouth or pharynx and difficulty swallowing. As the radiotherapy dose increases, the symptoms worsen. If the patient can tolerate it, there is no need to interrupt radiotherapy, give a high-vitamin, high-protein diet, and maintain oral hygiene; if the patient's reaction is particularly severe, radiotherapy is suspended, and fluid support therapy, antibiotics, and hormones can be given.

3. Radiation skin reaction

The skin color of the irradiated area will turn red, then turn brown, and even peel. Do not rub the irradiated skin hard at this time. After the new skin grows, the old skin will fall off by itself. Do not tear it off hard. If blisters, ulcers and other wet skin reactions occur, radiotherapy should be suspended at this time, keep the local skin dry and clean, apply anti-inflammatory drugs externally, and avoid using irritating disinfectants such as alcohol and iodine.