What should you know about gamma ray therapy?

Gamma ray therapy uses focused beams of high-energy radiation to damage cancer cells while limiting exposure to nearby healthy tissue. A specialist team plans the dose and beam direction around the size, shape, and position of the tumour. The treatment may be used on its own, after surgery, alongside other cancer treatment, or to ease symptoms caused by a tumour. The exact approach depends on the cancer and the area being treated.

Before treatment, you may have scans and a planning appointment. The team uses these images to map the treatment area and protect organs nearby. You may need a mould, mask, or other positioning aid so that the same body area can be aligned during each session. Some forms deliver radiation from several directions; the beams meet at the target so the surrounding tissue receives less radiation than the tumour area.

Treatment itself is usually scheduled as one or more planned sessions. You do not feel the radiation as it is delivered, although lying still or wearing a positioning device may feel unfamiliar. The machine does not make you radioactive after external treatment. Effects vary with the body area, the total treatment plan, and whether chemotherapy or another therapy is given at the same time.

Tell the team about medicines, previous radiation treatment, implanted devices, pregnancy or a possibility of pregnancy, and any symptoms you already have. Follow the instructions about skin care, eating, drinking, and medicines for your treatment area. Keep appointments because the team may need to check your position, symptoms, and recovery.

During the course, tiredness or changes in the treated area can occur. Skin may become dry, red, darker, sore, or irritated when the skin is within the treatment field. Hair loss can occur in the treated area and may or may not grow back. Ask before applying creams, heat, cold packs, or adhesive products to treated skin. Rest when needed, drink according to your clinician's advice, and report side effects early so support can be offered.

Contact your oncology team promptly if symptoms are worsening, you cannot keep fluids down, you have severe pain, or the treated skin becomes broken, very swollen, or increasingly painful. Seek urgent medical help for trouble breathing, a new seizure, sudden weakness, confusion, fainting, or a severe allergic-type reaction. Your team can tell you which number to use outside clinic hours and which symptoms require immediate assessment for your specific treatment area.

Ask which type of radiation is planned, why it is recommended, how the treatment area will be protected, how many visits are expected, and which side effects are most relevant to your body area. You can also ask how treatment may interact with surgery, medicines, work, driving, exercise, and daily care.