Radiology Section Links
| Web Link |
|---|
 The Royal College of Radiologists |
|
The European Society of Gastrointestinal & Abdominal Radiology |
|
Pelvic Radiation Disease Association - PRDA The term Pelvic Radiation Disease is a relatively new one, and is only just now gaining general acceptance among health professionals as a valid and useful framework within which to describe brief or longlasting problems, mostly in the bowel, caused by pelvic radiotherapy. Symptoms range from flatulence, leakage, and occasional urgency to frequent urgency, chronic diarrhoea and faecal incontinence. For many patients these effects result in public humiliation followed by self-imposed isolation, and can severely disrupt any success along their survivorship journey. Symptoms can manifest shortly after treatment, or months and even years after radiotherapy. With very delayed late effects, patients are effectively off the 'cancer' radar, and find that their GPs don't have sufficient knowledge to make effective onward referrals. Even if patients report problems to their oncologists and radiotherapists, they are frequently advised that nothing can be done. The attitude of 'We've cured your cancer, so what's the fuss about', though not universal, is frequently encountered. There are effective treatments, though not yet widely available: many of our members fortunate enough to get appropriate treatment report an average 70% improvement in symptoms after treatment, according to a recent survey that we conducted. If this widespread unpleasant disease and its humiliating, socially crippling and debilitating symptoms are to be tackled, it is informed and sympathetic gastroenterologists who hold the key. For further information please visit our website www.prda.org.uk or contact vicechair@prda.org.uk |