&&url:  A Guide to Self-Help During Cancer Treatment.<br><b>Go to the link, download the guide, and read it&mdash;FIRST.</b><br>This online booklet is for patients who are receiving radiation therapy for cancer. It describes what to expect during therapy and offers suggestions for self-care during and after treatment.  It should be read and re-read by you and your caretaker.  It is very well written, and therefore this website will not address the issues it covers.

&&url<br>If you have radiation treatment of the abdomen or pelvis, one of the side effects of this is enteritis-inflammation of the bowels.  This inflammation can be acute [coming on suddenly during treatment, but getting better] or chronic [late effects of radiation do not appear immediately] and stay around.  Sometimes a patient gets both acute and chronic side effects.  The chronic side effects, called "late effects" are permanent damage.  Not everyone is badly affected by late effects.  The following is a link to a PDQ article on Radiation Enteritis, Acute and Chronic, written at both the patient and the health professional levels, with a tab arrangement so that you can go back and forth between the two levels.  If you read the patient's version first, the doctor's version will be easier to understand. 

&&url<br>If you are having radiation treatment to your head or neck, there are certain complications that develop.  You MUST see your dentist before starting therapy.  The link above is to a PDQ article about Head and Neck Radiation, and it is written at both the patient and the health professional levels, with a tab arrangement so that you can go back and forth between the two levels.  If you read the patient's version first, the doctor's version will be easier to understand.  

There are many other publications available from NCI relating to this topic.<br>Cancer patients, their families and friends, and others may find the following National Cancer Institute books useful.<br>They are available free of charge by calling 1-800-4-CANCER, or download them from the website.
