Radiotherapy for testicular cancer

Radiotherapy is a treatment that uses high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells, while doing as little harm as possible to normal cells.

You may have radiotherapy for testicular cancer to treat a seminoma that has spread to the lymph nodes at the back of the tummy (abdomen). These are called the retroperitoneal lymph nodes. Radiotherapy aims to reduce the small risk of the cancer returning in this area of the body. You may have it after chemotherapy treatment if you have a stage 2 or 3 seminoma. We have more information on staging of testicular cancer.

If you are not able to have chemotherapy, you may have radiotherapy on its own.

If a seminoma comes back, you may have radiotherapy with chemotherapy.

More rarely, you may have radiotherapy to treat non-seminomas.

Your doctor will talk to you about what the best treatment options might be in your situation.

At the beginning of each session of radiotherapy, the radiographer will position you carefully and make sure you are comfortable. During your treatment, you will be alone in the room. But you can talk to the radiographer, who will watch you from the next room.

Radiotherapy is not painful, but you will have to lie still for a few minutes during the treatment.

 

Radiotherapy to your tummy can cause side effects. But these can usually be controlled with medicines. Your doctor or specialist nurse will tell you more about what to expect. These side effects usually disappear gradually once your course of treatment has finished.

It is important to let your doctor know if you are having any problems with side effects. Most side effects are mild, and you can have medicines to treat them successfully.

If you have fair skin, the treated area may become red. If you have black or brown skin, it may become darker. But after your treatment finishes, these changes should go away. Your doctor can advise you how to look after your skin and prescribe cream if your skin is sore.

Radiotherapy to the tummy area may make you feel sick. Your doctor can prescribe anti-sickness medicine to prevent or stop this. Let your doctor know if the tablets are not working for you. There are other medicines they can prescribe.

Radiotherapy often makes people feel tired, especially towards the end of treatment. Try to pace yourself and avoid doing anything that you do not really need to do. Gentle exercise, such as short walks, can help to improve tiredness. It is good to balance this with plenty of rest.

Sometimes, tiredness can last about 8 weeks or longer after treatment finishes. Your energy levels should then slowly improve.

You might get diarrhoea, but your doctor can prescribe you medicines to control this. Let your doctor know if you have diarrhoea. It is important to drink plenty of fluids. Try to eat fewer high-fibre foods, such as fruit, vegetables, beans, pulses and wholewheat cereals.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.