Late Effects Service
The NUH Macmillan Late Effects service is available for patients who experience late side effects following radiotherapy treatment as an adult. These symptoms can develop months, years, or even decades after undergoing radiotherapy, and can have a significant impact on a patient’s quality of life by affecting them in a number of different ways.
What Are Late Effects?
Radiotherapy late effects are symptoms that can happen any time from 3 to 6 months to many years after your radiotherapy treatment ended. Some people have long-term side effects, which are side effects that you had during treatment that never went away.
Late effects of radiotherapy vary between people and depend on which part of the body you had treated. They can include pain or swelling in the area, skin changes, and loss of movement or function. If you had your pelvis treated you may have concerns about bowel, bladder, gynaecological or erectile symptoms. Or, for example, if you had your head and neck treated with radiotherapy you may have concerns about swallowing, dry mouth or thick saliva. Whichever part of the body you had radiotherapy to, you may have concerns about intimacy and sexual wellbeing.
This is not a complete list of radiotherapy late effects, just some examples. Radiotherapy's late effects can be mild and not cause problems for you or they can be more severe and affect how you live.
The Service
The NUH Macmillan Late Effects Service is a bespoke service that aims to support people to live well with the late effects of radiotherapy. The team will listen to your concerns, offering lifestyle changes and management advice. We can also prescribe medication, provide additional information and refer to other specialist services when appropriate. It is important to realise that it is not always possible to remove radiotherapy late effects altogether. However, we hope to reduce the impact the late effects are having and improve your quality of life – this may be by reducing pain, improving bowel or bladder habits, and improving function. This service is here to support and help you with what matters to you in living with these consequences.
Referrals
The Late Effects service is based at the City Campus, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. The team sees people who finished their radiotherapy more than 6 months ago and will listen, advise and support people to live well after treatment. You will be offered an appointment with one of the Late Effects Therapeutic Radiographers and given the opportunity to talk about your concerns.
Your GP or any health care professional involved in your care can you refer you to the service. You can also contact us directly to make an appointment:
Call us: 0115 969 1169 ext 74543
Email us: nuhnt.lateeffects@nhs.net
Useful Links
For further information surrounding late effects: https://radiotherapy.org.uk/patients-families/late-effects/