A persistent cough after radiotherapy.

Hi  

Welcome to the Breast group, a great place to find yourself at a tough time :(

Don't know how long your Rads sessions finished but the treatment carries on working for 2-3 weeks after the last one then fades off. Is it just the cough, or do you have shortness of breath too ?

Getting a cough afterwards isn't uncommon and can happen when the lung gets 'clipped' by the radiotherapy beam when they target the area. Sometimes after treatment to the breast/chest area, part of the lung behind the treatment area can become inflamed, causing a dry cough and/or shortness of breath. This usually heals by itself over time.

If this isn't an infection there won't be any coloured phlegm so the anti-biotics won't help but steroids may ease the irritation ?

Have you phoned the radiotherapy unit or your oncologist and asked about this to see what advice they give to patients who get this side effect ?  As a lot of this cancer treatment malarky is above most GP's heads so they always try to treat the obvious because they haven't the oncology / rads experience.

Hopefully there will be a member here who has also experienced this and will reply later :)

How are you post surgery - recovered well or struggling a bit ?

Take care, G n' J

Hi I had a cough and sore throat from day 2 of rads, the radiotherapist showed me in pen (so I could see in the mirror) how far up my neck the rads went, she said the sore throat and cough should stop 3 weeks after finishing the course and they did.

Best Wishes

Sarah

hi  

It is worth checking with a radiographer if it was likely your throat was caught in the zapping zone. The RT I had was literally to the breast. I had a sore throat after a couple of days of RT but was assured it wouldn't have been caused by the RT. 

we sometimes forget that RT causes our immune system to work hard. The cells/tissue that is zapped by RT have to be renewed so it does cause stress on the body. It is a heavy duty sunburn after all. You may find this cough is unrelated to RT but just a cough you have picked up. On the basis you haven't needed the anti biotics it sounds like it isn't getting worse. Generally coughs are more annoying at night when we lie down.

Have you tried over the counter cough medicines? See how you get on ver the next week and go back to your GP if it doesn't show signs of improvement.

Julia X 

My oncologist checked my lungs to be sure because I had a persistent cough I was prescribed asthma inhalers for a while for the steroid content and now my cough has gone. I would Call your BC nurse.

Hiya,

I had a cough during after Rads but I have asthma and inhaler anyway. So I just thought the radiotherapy had irritated it. It resolved after a few weeks  :)

Thanks julia. I have started taking the anti biotics out of desperation as I havent been able to sleep for the last 3 nights as coughing so much. Your right that it is much worse when im laying down. I may see dr again to check my ears in case its an ear infection causing it,although if so I would hope the anti biotics would sort this anyway.

Ill try cough mixture too.

Hi

Thanks for responding. Ill call my oncology dept today and have a chat with them about it. I did suggest to my dr that it may be asthma as ive had to have a steriod inhaler in the past after a chest infection that hadnt cleared up and it helped. She said I wasnt asthmatic so didnt prescribe an inhaler this time.

I had my.last RT session two weeks ago today so maybe I am still inflamed as you suggest.

Thanks for explaining about the lack of obvious infe tion to me as I felt like i was imagining the cough after seeing the dr even though its constant by her response towards me!

Im healing physically well but still sore. To be expected though at this point ive been told.emotionally ive been low and quite anxious and dont like going out on my own still. I feel vulnerable somehow. Its hard to explain why. Im now taking anti depressants to help with.this so hopefully should improve soon x

Thanks sarah. Im only two weeks today post RT. So hopefully this will pass as it did for you.

Hope your doing well now?

Best wishes

Samantha

Thanks jan.

Ill call oncologist today as this cough is driving me nuts.

Best wishes

Samantha

Hi Samantha   

Fingers crossed Onco can offer you an explanation and even better something to ease it.

Nothing much worse than days with lack of sleep from constant coughing when you need to recouperate :(

Let us know how you get on, G n' J