Read article Radiotherapy for myeloma
This page tells you about radiotherapy for myeloma. There is information about
Radiotherapy uses high energy rays to kill cancer cells. The radiation used is similar to that used for X-rays. Myeloma can damage areas of bone and make them weaker or painful. Radiotherapy can strengthen the bone and reduce pain in those areas.
Sometimes radiotherapy is used as part of a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant. Doctors call this total body irradiation and it involves giving a high dose of radiotherapy to the whole body as well as high dose chemotherapy. This treatment kills off the bone marrow, including myeloma cells, before you have a drip of stem cells or bone marrow, so that your bone marrow starts to make blood cells again.
You can find more information in the radiotherapy section.
You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the treating myeloma section.
Radiotherapy means using high energy rays to kill cancer cells. It uses radiation similar to that used for X-rays.
Myeloma can cause damage to areas of bone, which weakens the bone and can cause pain. Sometimes this makes the bone break (fracture). Radiotherapy kills off the cancer cells in the bone and shrinks the cancer. It can strengthen the bone and helps to reduce bone pain.
Sometimes, a bone needs to be pinned to keep it stable and stop it from breaking. This is done during an operation. The surgeon puts a metal pin into the bone to strengthen it and hold it together. They do this if there is a strong risk of the bone breaking before radiotherapy has had time to work. If you have an operation to fix a bone, you might still need to have radiotherapy afterwards to kill off the myeloma cells and strengthen the bone.
Sometimes doctors use radiotherapy and high dose chemotherapy as part of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. You have the radiation to the whole body (total body irradiation). The radiotherapy and chemotherapy kills off the bone marrow, including myeloma cells. Then you have a drip of stem cells or bone marrow so that the bone marrow starts making blood cells again. Radiotherapy is rarely used if you are using your own stem cells (autologous transplant). But it is part of treatment if you are using donor stem cells or bone marrow (allogeneic transplant).
The radiotherapy section tells you about this type of treatment including
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