What is Radiation-Induced Tissue Fibrosis and How Can Acupuncture Help?

Posted in For Patients

For cancer survivors, finding relief from the medical complications of cancer treatment can be difficult. But thankfully, recent studies have cited acupuncture as an effective new way to battle a variety of the most common and serious side effects.

What is radiation-induced tissue fibrosis?

Radiation induced tissue fibrosis, or Radiation Fibrosis Syndrome (RFS), describes a range of symptoms that can occur in the wake of radiation treatment.

Essentially, though radiation therapies target cancer cells, healthy cells are often affected as well. They begin to produce abnormal amounts of fibrin: a protein which accumulates and causes tissue damage.

Since radiation treatments for different cancers vary so widely, RFS manifests in a variety of ways, and can develop weeks, months, or even years after the radiation exposure. This makes RFS particularly challenging to manage and treat.

But while the condition is difficult to cure, acupuncture has been used to reduce the discomfort and pain of symptoms to improve overall quality of life. Compared to therapies that include drugs and injections, acupuncture poses minimal risks and carries potentially significant benefits.

What are the most common symptoms?

Signs and symptoms of RFS vary widely, and can include neuromuscular and functional problems like:

lymphedema
fatigue & weakness
tingling & numbness
muscle pain and spasms
decreased mouth opening
difficulty walking & maneuvering
difficulties with speech and swallowing

Essentially, RFS is a catch-all. It labels the myriad ways excessive connective tissue growth in irradiated areas stiffens and impedes normal neuromuscular function—and becomes a major cause of long-term disability after cancer treatment.

How can acupuncture help?

Already established as a safe and effective treatment for radiation side effects like pain, fatigue, and joint and muscle discomfort, recent studies are also reporting acupuncture’s usefulness in the management of lymphedema by reducing limb volume and improving clinical symptoms.

Though the “how” is still being explored, researchers hypothesize that acupuncture can mitigate and possibly even reduce the tissue inflammation and fibrosis responsible for RFS by stimulating the peripheral nervous system, increasing tissue oxygenation, and flushing some of the toxins and proteins from cells.

I’ll go into the details of these studies in two upcoming posts. The research all concurs that acupuncture’s low-risk, high-efficacy promise of relief for a battery of RFS symptoms makes it a safe, recommended option for sufferers of many radiation treatment complications.

Don’t settle for pain, discomfort, or unnecessarily intrusive, high-risk therapies before seeing if acupuncture can help ease your RFS symptoms. Come back next week to follow our discussion of recent studies, or get in touch with us today for a free consultation.

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