Hello as am pretty old to MS being diagnosed in 1985. I wonder whether anyone has had radiotherapy for cancer and had there been any contraindications on their MS. I was diagnosed with lung cancer, following a series of chest CT scans, on 9th July being offered radiotherapy treatment but at 80 years of age refused in having no quality of life. The only positive is relief from chest pain but already experience a great deal of MS pain. I have search the web but found nothing with this query
Not me and my sympathies to you . Is your MS Nurse or Neurologist able to shed any light on the question ?
In searching medical reports on the web the only things I found were about radiotherapy for brain tumours. The reports were all about case histories of one or two patients and described how Radiotherapy for brain tumours were later followed by some demyelination. I’m no medic but tend to think that while it’s possible that radiotherapy to treat brain tumours might have caused some relapse type problems the reports were about one or two cases and , who knows, it might not have been the radiotherapy as such that caused the problem so much as the general stress on mind and body.
Thank you for your helpful comments
Hi Pinkpot
I’m sorry you’re going through such an unpleasant situation and wish you all the very best.
Not the same situation as yours of course, but I have PPMS (diagnosis was Sept 2022), in August 23 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had 5 sessions of Radiotherapy in January 2024. The decision was made to ‘split’ the Radiotherapy into 2 sessions one week (Thurs/Fri) and 3 the week after (Mon/Tues/Wed) to give me a chance to rest up in between sessions.
In my case this was the best thing ever as it was quite gruelling travelling into the hospital each day.
The radiotherapy itself went as well as it could but i moisturised the treated area constantly and rested up as much as I could. The fatigue was the biggest thing for me, I’m used to it through MS, but it was certainly impacted I felt. Otherwise I wouldn’t say I noticed anything untoward during the time I was undergoing the sessions.
All the best!!
Many thanks for your most useful comments where this coming Sunday will be having a further CT scan to determine if the cancer has progressed although, given my age along with limited quality of life, have declined radiotherapy. Sorry to be so morbid! Take care -