CANCER COMMUNITY
scarring after Hodkin's radiation

scarring after Hodkin's radiation

5418115?1267235850
I am 47 year old male, pretty athletic and healthy until few months ago. Will try to make this story as short as possible. Back in 1994 was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma- stage 2. Went through vigorous course of radiation therapy- beam radiation to my chest, lymph nodes around the heart and my stomach. Lost part of my hair on the back permanently and couple of my saliva glands were destroyed, so I have to take medications for the rest of my life. Other than that I was cancer free and enjoyed pretty good life. One of the things I didn’t know and wasn’t told is how radiation therapy for Hodgkin’s affects your heart.  Being a healthy person with perfect blood pressure and cholesterol on 09/21/10 I had heart attack. My left ventricle artery was 100% occluded and couple of stents were placed in my middle LAD. Since then the pain in my chest never stopped. 4 months later I ended up in the emergency room/second time/ with a horrible pain in my back. My cardiac enzymes were very elevated and another angiogram was done- my bare metal stents were 99% clogged and I almost ended up with another heart attack. Another, this time so called drug eluted stent was placed inside those two. The pain though never stopped after that. After I met with my oncologist, he apologized profusely for not even mentioning how dangerous radiation can be to the heart but now he cannot do anything. Reading different forums and communicating with people, who have similar problems, I came to the conclusion that the pain is either due to the stent/please see http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:FKununr8RIYJ:www.scielo.br/scielo.php%3Fpid%3DS0102-76382003000400002%26script%3Dsci_arttext+inflammation+from+coronary+stent&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us/
or the statins I am taking/see http://www.westonaprice.org/Dangers-of-Statin-Drugs-What-You-Havent-Been-Told-About-Popular-Cholesterol-Lowering-Medicines.html/
In any case I am really disappointed and angry that I wasn’t told anything about this- I could’ve monitored myself every year, pay close attention to the symptoms and eventually prevent it.  Here is a fraction of the information I found showing how the radiation affects your heart:  “Therapeutic irradiation of the chest results in the inadvertent inclusion of the heart within the irradiation field. Over the next 10 to 20 years, some of these people may experience pathological changes of the heart valves that could predispose them to endocarditic, accelerated atherosclerosis of the coronary artery that heightens their risk of experiencing a fatal myocardial infarction or both.
Hodgkin’s disease: Approximately 25 percent of the people who have received radiation therapy for Hodgkin’s disease develop heart murmurs five to 13 years after treatment. Approximately 7 to 8 percent of these adults appear to develop severe CAD 11 to 18 years after treatment. The anterior portal of mediastinal radiation therapy most often damages the left main coronary artery; the left anterior descending artery, or LAD; and the ostium of the right coronary artery, while the posterior portal of radiation most often damages the circumflex artery.3”  Does anybody know if there is any way to reduce the scarring to the lungs or arteries caused by radiation- either using traditional medicine or natural cures? With the stem cells research I expect a lot of good things to happen but until then we have to “dig” and hopefully find something together. Thank you in advance to everyone who is willing to respond.
Related Discussions
Post a Comment
To
Comment
Post A Comment
Go
Blank
Weight Tracker
Reach your weight goal faster
Start Tracking Now
MedHelp Health Answers
Submit
Top Cancer Answerers
1268057_tn?1336996641
Blank
Londres70
Paris, France
RSS Expert Activity
1741471_tn?1336957856
Blank
LIVE WEBINAR TOMORROW!-SUPER BODY, ... Blank
May 22 by Michael Gonzalez-WallaceBlank
2126606_tn?1335910182
Blank
Fibromyalgia Awareness
May 11 by Clare Waismann Kavin, RASBlank
2126606_tn?1335910182
Blank
Opioid-induced hyperalgesia reduces...
May 03 by Clare Waismann Kavin, RASBlank