Lung cancer patients will experience adverse reactions after radiotherapy

Lung cancer patients may experience discomfort after chemotherapy. The main adverse reactions are:

Radiation damage

When lung cancer patients receive radiotherapy, the lung tissue will be exposed to a certain dose of radiation, causing varying degrees of radiation damage. The complications of lung radiation damage - acute radiation pneumonitis and radiation pulmonary fibrosis - are limiting factors for the radiation therapy dose of chest tumors. Animal experiments have shown that after the whole lung is irradiated with a radical dose, obvious pulmonary congestion, alveolar interstitial edema, and alveolar exudate will occur within a few weeks to months, followed by inflammatory cell infiltration and alveolar epithelial cell shedding. After a few weeks, interstitial pulmonary edema turns into collagen fibers, and the alveolar septum thickens, resulting in gas exchange disorders.

pneumonia

During radiotherapy for lung cancer patients, about 5-15% of patients develop clinical symptoms of radiation pneumonitis. The main symptoms are low fever, cough, chest tightness, and severe cases may experience dyspnea, chest pain, persistent dry cough, and blood in sputum. Chest X-rays can show diffuse flake-like increased density consistent with the radiation field; CT can show changes in increased lung interstitial density. When the tolerated dose is exceeded, severe radiation pneumonitis can occur, with severe clinical symptoms, acute respiratory distress, high fever, and often leading to death. After the acute phase, the patient's pneumonia symptoms will persist for several months, but histological changes will continue to develop and gradually enter the pulmonary fibrosis stage.