Read press release Chemotherapy with radiotherapy for rectal cancer
This page is about giving chemotherapy with radiotherapy treatment for rectal cancer. There is information about
Chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer
Specialists often treat cancer in the back passage with radiotherapy, either before or after surgery. 5FU (fluorouracil) chemotherapy makes the cancer cells more sensitive to radiation. So you are likely to have chemotherapy at the same time as the radiotherapy treatment. This treatment is called chemoradiation, chemoradiotherapy, or concomitant chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Having chemotherapy
You may have chemotherapy as a series of injections into a vein, or through a drip (an infusion), or as an infusion through a pump you wear 24 hours a day, or as capecitabine tablets. The body turns capecitabine into 5FU. Research is looking into all the different ways of having 5FU to find out which is best.
Side effects of chemoradiotherapy
Having chemotherapy and radiotherapy together can make the side effects worse. The combined treatment may make you feel very tired. You may also have diarrhoea, feel sick, have a low resistance to infection, need to pass urine more often and have sore skin in the treatment area.
You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the treating bowel cancer section.
Specialists often treat rectal cancer with radiotherapy either before or after surgery. This can help to stop the cancer from coming back. It can also shrink the cancer in the back passage and make it easier to remove surgically.
You are likely to have chemotherapy at the same time as the radiotherapy treatment. The chemotherapy makes the cancer cells more sensitive to the radiation. So this combined treatment is likely to be more successful than radiotherapy on its own. It is also called chemoradiation, chemoradiotherapy or concomitant chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The chemotherapy drug used most often is called fluorouracil (5FU), pronounced floo-or-yoo-ra-sill. Doctors often use this drug to treat bowel cancer but it is also a radiosensitiser. That means it makes cells sensitive to radiation.
You may have 5FU in the following ways
- Through a drip (an infusion)
- As an infusion through a pump you wear 24 hours a day
- As capecitabine tablets – the body turns capecitabine into 5FU
- As a series of injections into a vein before radiotherapy treatment
Research is looking into different ways of having 5FU to find out which is best. Many people prefer to have tablets rather than injections. But we need more research to be sure that capecitabine tablets work as well as 5FU into a vein when you have it with radiotherapy for rectal cancer.
There is information about trials for rectal cancer on our clinical trials database. Pick 'bowel' from the dropdown menu of cancer types.
Having chemotherapy and radiotherapy together can make the side effects of the treatments worse. The combined treatment may make you feel very tired. You may also have diarrhoea, feel sick, and have a low resistance to infection. The radiotherapy may make you feel that you need to pass urine more often and can cause very sore skin in the treatment area.
There is information about the side effects of 5FU in our chemotherapy section. You can find information about the side effects of rectal radiotherapy in the radiotherapy section.
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