Radiotherapy for myeloma

Radiotherapy means using radiation to treat cancer. The radiation used is similar to that used for X-rays.

Myeloma can cause a lot of damage to bones. Radiotherapy can treat areas where there is localised bone damage or pain. The myeloma destroys area of bone until it is full of holes, like a piece of lace. Obviously, this weakens the bone. Sometimes it causes it to break (fracture). Radiotherapy kills off the cancer cells in the bone and shrinks the cancer. This reduces the pressure caused by the cancer growth in the bone and helps to reduce bone pain.

Sometimes, a bone needs to be pinned to keep it stable and stop it from fracturing. This is done during an operation. The surgeon puts a metal pin into the bone to strengthen it and hold it together. This is done 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 cancer and strengthen the bone.

Sometimes radiotherapy is used as part of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Doctors call this total body irradiation and it involves giving a high dose of radiotherapy to the whole body. This kills off the bone marrow, including myeloma cells, before you have your transplant. Radiotherapy is rarely used if you are using your own stem cells (autologous transplant) but is part of treatment if you are using donor stem cells or bone marrow (allogeneic transplant).

Look at the radiotherapy section in CancerHelp UK. It will tell you more about this type of treatment including

• What radiotherapy is
• How your radiotherapy treatment is planned
• Possible side effects
• Radiotherapy to control pain