Rectal cancer/radiotherapy

Hi and welcome to a site where you will be well supported although none of us want to be here. 
Can you give a bit more information about your diagnosis and that will help other reply. I. E. Cancer were you diagnosed via colonoscopy? What stage? Any referral comments for oncology? 

Hi MartinR Is it chemoradiotherapy that you’re having ie. Radiotherapy with a low dose of chemo in tablet form? If so it’s generally 5 weeks mon-fri with weekends off. The operation is several weeks after that (8+ maybe) as the radiotherapy continues working for several weeks after the physical treatment has stopped. 

Radiotherapy can be very successful at shrinking rectal tumours and I’ve attached a link to a top tips post that we did a while ago which may be helpful?

 Radiotherapy care top tips ! 

Take care

Karen x

Hello MartinR,

5 weeks of weekdays seems to be common for radiotherapy treatment. It is a painless process and I had few side effects, which were only minor. If you are in line for this, perhaps with chemo tablets, do not forget to take the tablets over the weekends even though you are not attending the radio treatment then. I found it reassuring to see all these big guns declaring war on my alien invader (and it worked).

Best,

Dulac

Hi Martin, I’m 58 diagnosed last year with rectal cancer; my treatment pathway can be seen in my profile that included 5 weeks LCCRT and surgery if you want an example. Just shout if you want any further detail; best of luck.

I am Tues coming for my plan I think mine is a similar size to yours. So did you have the chemo tablet to take. It seems a current theme 5 weeks radiotherapy. 

Yes - Long Course Chemo Radiotherapy (LCCRT) for me was 5 weeks, with Radiotherapy and chemo tablets, capecitabine, treatment on weekdays with weekends off. 

Can you remember from the day you had your first meeting with oncology how long was it till fist lot of radiotherapy. It’s because I go Tues coming but go away on the Saturday for a week but I have no idea how quickly they act. If you can’t remember no problem. Thanks for replying 

For me it was just over three weeks; although the week before I had a scan, to align you in preparation for treatment; historically they used to mark you with a small tattoo, which is no longer required for the latest machines. 

I had high dose radiotherapy for only 5 days followed by 3 months of CAPOX chemotherapy.  My cancer was very low in my rectum.  Having  this treatment first meant I didn't need surgery as I had  complete clinical response.  Now on watch and wait. So I have MRI, blood test and sigmoidoscopy every 4 months and a CT every 6 months for the next 2 years.  I have a 30% chance of the cancer coming back but if it does I will need a colostomy bag.

What was you like with the CAPOX did you have many side effects