Two weeks tomorrow a friend of mine is to undergo a course of radiation therapy. The radiation therapy is fractioned over a five week period, Monday to Friday. 45 Gy is a huge amount of radiation, given that a whole body dose of 5 Gy will lead to death. Does anyone know what the, stochastic health risk, is for this type of treatment ? I need to point out that I am a laymen, I am not asking for medical advice, just hard data. Thank you in advance.

A few things to consider. Radiation therapy is highly localized. As such, the risk is dependent on which part of the body is being irradiated, as well as the area being irradiated. Due to the usually highly localized treatment, most effects are expected to be transient (but as usual ask medical doctors for actual risk assessment). The dose is always kept way below levels for acute radiation syndrome, if that was your worry.

Edited September 22, 20169 yr by CharonY

Thank you.